Lydia had a joyful return to Holland Bloorview today.  She was excited to get back to “school” and see her therapists.  Every time she was asked how her weekend went, she smiled, gave a thumbs up and said “Great!  I got to see my brothers, Sam and Ben.”  How heart warming!  That expresses the beauty of weekends at home.

Lydia has been alert, happy and even giddy at times, all day.  It began at breakfast, when she broke into song, upon tasting a delicious homemade cinnamon bun!  (No, I don’t have time to bake, but God has blessed us with foodie friends, and one of them is an extraordinary baker.   Another friend makes us a fresh, healthy salad every week.  We are grateful for these tangible expressions of love.)  Back to Lydia.  This evening, she saw my tupperware container with a cinnamon bun I had brought to have for breakfast tomorrow.  She took it and opened it, and asked to have some.  I said we could share it.  She promptly ripped off the outside crust and handed it to me, and kept the gooey sugar filled centre for herself.  When I commented, she wittingly responded, "Do you have a problem with this?" and shoved it in her mouth!   Yeah, Lyds!  Our fun loving jokester is back!

Today, Lydia drank all of her fluids and took her meds orally, all day!  Hooray!  She has been working on drinking more, but today is the first day she has been able to do it!  Hooray!  The goal of g tube removal by the end of Sept. is feasible.

For her therapists today, Lydia was sharp and worked hard.  She put numbers into sequences, and worked on sorting groups of five animals from smallest to biggest, or slowest to fastest.

Weaving throughout my day, today, have been prayers for several friends who are in tough places.  We all hit pain, uncertainty, and loss in our lives.  Thankfully, our God is ever present, faithful and so tender and loving.  This prayer, shared with me recently, is for those whose journey is hard. 

"Ever-present God,

You call us on a journey to a place we do not know.

We are not where we started.

We have not reached our destination.

We are not sure where we are or who we are.

This is not a comfortable place.

Be among us, we pray.

Calm our fears, save us from discouragement.

And help us to stay on course.

Open our hearts to your guidance so that our journey to this

Unknown place continues as a journey of trust.

Amen."

The Reverend Canon Kristi Philip