Mon-Fri: 10am-7pm
Saturday: 10am-5pm
Sunday: 12pm-5pm
Tiny SpacesIt has been a few weeks now since my father’s fall. He is doing especially well and is expected to make a complete recovery. We have been very fortunate and I am grateful for all the love and support shown to us.
The other day I pulled out my dad’s cat scan film to gaze at it again. There are so many images of his skull and brain. Amongst all the areas of healthy tissue were small spaces of cloudy images - spaces that indicated trauma to the brain. They were such tiny spaces.
I spaced my thumb and index finger to encase one cloudy space and held up my hand to see. The space between my fingers was less than a quarter of an inch. Such an insignificant distance. Yet all that was contained in that space, the accident, the concern, the phone calls, the tests, the rallying of family & friends, the effort to make it back to normal functioning is a voyage we will all remember.
As I looked at that tiny space between my fingers my mind went back to other tiny spaces in my life. The tiny space of time it took for the car door I was leaning on as a child to open up to the highway, rushing beneath me. (My mother, screaming at my dad to stop, reached over and pulled me back in.)
The tiny space of time after I asked my girlfriend if she thought we had something really special going on before she answered that she certainly thought so. (Beth and I were married about a year later. I remember I was so excited that night of our conversation I couldn’t sleep.)
The tiny space of time it took Beth to tell me we had been successful in conceiving Julia & Joshua, our two children.
The tiny space of time it took to say angry and healing words to each other as Beth and I journeyed through years of marriage counseling.
The tiny space of dwindling hope I felt as I was massaging my mother’s feet and started to come to terms with the fact that we were going to lose her to cancer.
The small space on the piece of paper where I signed my name, making me the owner of Changing Times.
Science tells us that within the tiniest of particles there is tremendous spaces. Poets tell us that there is the infinite within even leaves of grass. When it comes to emotions, so too is it within the human heart.