Because of God doing such an amazing healing inside of me I am recovering really well and I feel good generally. And so I’ve had a lot of visitors this past week. Every morning I’ve sat on my front porch in my Grandfather’s old rocking chair talking with a friend. And what a delight it has been. These visits made my day.
I’m not sure the other people would say the same thing because the visit was totally under the influence of pain meds. And me on pain meds can be humorous and probably confusing.
On one such visit I made the comment about not knowing how my son read the book of Revelation like he said he did out of a Gideon New Testament since it’s only the New Testament. My friend gently reminded me that Revelation is indeed in the New Testament and it’s the last book of the Bible in fact.
Another friend said, “Melody, remind me to show you the crazy text messages you sent to me while you were in the hospital.” When she left the house I quickly pulled out my phone in case I had said something totally horrifying. It wasn’t too bad but I did request prayer for my iPod to sleep followed by several lines of “bahahahahaha”. So yeah – the effects of pain medicine on me is quite entertaining and embarrassing.
Upon one of these visits a friend and I belly laughed about going home from my pre-op with the very clear instructions to shave. So I shaved my legs. Well, apparently that’s NOT what they wanted me to shave for bowel surgery. When I woke up from surgery I was more shocked at the Brazilian shave than I was the scars! We laughed so hard until I truly thought I busted a real stitch. And then I later thought – did I really just share that story with someone other than my husband and Mom & sister? It’s okay – everything is covered under the excuse of “pain meds” and “anesthesia” right now. That’s my card and I’m not afraid to use it.
Even through the craziness of visits under the influence I’ve been reminded once again how important friendship is. How important making time to sit on the front porch is. I hate that it takes a major surgery for me to do that. But it almost feels unjustified if it’s not for a “good reason”. Like it’s being lazy or something to just sit and talk on your front porch just because you want to. And I don’t like this mindset inside of me. I want to be okay with the discipline of slowing down and enjoying friendships on the front porch.
The Lord has his way of slowing me down and pulling me back. Sometimes I feel like a horse being let out of barn at full speed and it takes a major fall, injury, or surgery to bring me back to front porch leisure. I embrace it and welcome it when it comes to me but I never plan for it. Maybe I should start.
What about you? What are your front porch experiences like? Do you have to work at making time for front porch friendships? Maybe you have them but they don’t take place on the front porch – maybe it’s the coffee shop or your living room. I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
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