It seems odd to title this post wound care when I am using these particular photos. Many would say there is a disconnect. I see something deeper within…which I am about to share in the words below. Call me Chatty Cathy cuz I have a lot of words to use in this post. Man…my life has been rather interesting the last couple of days. Feeling the need to share. 😂
Sunday night, I pulled up our kayaking photos because I knew Father wanted me to do a post using those photos. I also knew the text of this post was tied in with the weekend of inner healing I did with Hannah…which has carried into a daily thing since she is off work this week.
My plans were…get up Monday morning and do this post. Also, I was feeling a video. It wasn’t a strong feeling…a seed. BUT…I was thinking it might grow into a video by the next morning.
Before I get into the meat of the post…tied with the photos, I want to share a little story of my adventure this morning.
Bear Scat
That picture of bear scat is part of an adventure I had this morning. Had a run-in with a large black bear while hanging out in the woods.
I sensed this might be coming…a future event. Just felt it inside…ya know. Intuition you might say. I believe it was Father.
Donovan has pictures of lots of wildlife on his trail cam…so we knew we had black bears on the property. Also…the neighbor talks about them.
The other day, I saw the bear scat. I took a photo of it and sent it to Donovan. I said to him…gotta be bear right? It is pretty big. He agreed with my conclusion. I saw this pile…which I had to dig through just for shits and giggles. I am weird like that. Wanted to see what the dude had been digesting. 🤷♀️ I used a stick.
As I moved around the area, I found other piles…fresher. One pile was still damp. These are signs, right? I deduced the area I was hanging out in…was also a bear hang out. We were overlapping spaces.
I happen to really like this spot…so I suspected we might meet each other at some point in time.
We did.
Our Meeting
We had a house showing this morning and I didn’t feel like leaving the property to run into town with Vanessa and the kids. I opted to stay here…but hide out in the woods. I am kind of over leaving the house for the showings. It got old…quick. Ready for the place to sell.
I took Ritzy Bitzy Boy with me into the woods. He loves hanging out with me. It is an adventure for him as well. I think most dogs would feel the same way. 🤔
While I was on the phone with Hannah, I heard a noise beside me. I KNEW instantly…it was a bear.
Now…I am SUPER fascinated by how the mind works. How did I KNOW that in a nanosecond like I did???? Boggles my mind that my brain can process a noise so quickly…and come to a correct conclusion.
How do people NOT believe in intelligent design????? Someone who is intelligent designed the mind and brain to quickly compute data and come to the correct conclusion. Absolutely astonishing to me.
This happened to me one other time. I was in Yellowstone National Park. I heard a noise behind me, then my dog started this slow quiet growl…and instantaneously…I KNEW a bear was behind me.
Both times…I KNEW it was a bear before I even saw the bear.
That is the craziest stuff man.
Video
What is even crazier…THIS morning…on my newsfeed…a video popped up about a black bear. I watched it. This hiker was up on the side of this mountain in the rocks. A black bear was below him. It charged him and attacked him. He fought the bear off. He had the advantage of being above the bear. No one would have believed him probably had he not had his camera turned on. Such an amazing battle to watch.
Then…I run into this black bear today.
What are the odds?
I live in the Twilight Zone continually. 🤯
Ok…so I say on repeat…I have smarticles. I do. BUT…sometimes I don’t use them. Most of the time…I do…however, on occasion…my curiosity overrides the logical and right conclusion in my brain.
That said…I have a 20-second clip of the bear snorting at me. 😂 I had to hang up the phone from Hannah because it wouldn’t record while I was talking to her.
I then left the area to give the big boy/girl some space. After I got back on the path and headed home, I realized somewhere in there I dropped Ritzy’s leash. My thoughts were…leash him up because he kept circling the bear. Then I opted for a video…then I had to call Hannah back…so the leash is laying on the ground somewhere. In all the excitement of encountering the bear, I lost the leash. 🤦♀️🤷♀️
Tomorrow…I will go back and search for Ritzy Bitzy Boy’s leash. I was so glad I didn’t have Ahnalaya Ann with me or I would have worried over her.
But Wait…
There is more.
I come home…and now I am DETERMINED to write this blog post. I have been stewing on this thing since Sunday night. Continuous interruptions. In my mind, I am GOING to finally get this blog post done. No one is home. Total silence. No distractions. All is well.
Ya know that saying…never trust a fart?
Welp…I did.
That was a mistake. 🤣
I forgot that my colon didn’t like Vanessa’s noodles. Those noodles…have made things a bit loose you might say.
Good grief.
Another interruption.
I had to decide…are the underwear worth saving? Do I just throw them away?
Do I take ANOTHER shower now?
By 8 am this morning, my laundry was all done.
Now…I have a pair of jeans and underwear to wash all by themselves.
Vanessa has a fancy schmancy washing machine. Do I do a sanitize wash? A gentle cycle since there are so few clothes in the washer? Do I do an extra rinse and spin to make sure they are super clean?
So many decisions.
I almost wish my grandkids had been home because they would have gotten a kick out of grandma’s predicament. They are constantly saying to me…”funny Grandma.” I seem to be great entertainment for the little folk in my life. If I had a dime for every time my grands called me funny Grandma…I would not be in debt.
Summer Fun
I believe these photos were taken in the summer of 2019. Our family has a thing we do…we try to do at least one canoeing/kayaking trip down the river once each summer. It has gotten harder with the grandkids coming onto the scene, but the trip is always in our hearts each summer.
Hannah and I have made a couple of trips in one summer. One year, we did both the seven-mile and the fourteen-mile. So much fun!!!!
I am not a fan of being in the water but a super fan of being on the water. Weird how that works for me…but it works that way.
I love the photo with our hats. I want a photo of all four of us girls in our hats.
Monday
Let’s go back to Monday. I had plans to do this blog post and possibly a video. Father had other plans for me.
I woke up that morning and He started talking about a personal matter. After taking care of that, the plan was to start my post.
Nope…not happening.
Hannah called. She wanted to do more inner healing. I think she is starting to feel a bit addicted to the feeling healing brings. That wonderfulness that happens after it is over.
We did around 8 solid hours of work over the weekend between Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, she started in tremendous pain. By the time we finished, she was laughing. Hannah said, “It is amazing how much better I feel.”
That is how Father works. The truth of Christ sets you free. The feeling is addictive…for sure.
Urgent Care
After I get off the phone with Hannah, I think…NOW I will do the blog post.
NOPE.
Archer gets injured and off we go to Urgent Care. We had a showing…so we were leaving anyway. Instead of hanging out down the road, we headed into town. Urgent Care was concerned the swelling would close his throat up. They sent us to the ER.
The ER doctor informed Vanessa…Archer was centimeters away in either direction from a life-threatening injury.
My guess…divine intervention.
As I fell asleep that evening, I thanked Father for sparing my grandson’s life.
I absolutely hate seeing children suffering. While Vanessa was getting her shoes on to leave, I held Archer. He was asking me for medicine. Wrenching to my heart to hear him say those words.
How people can’t have compassion and empathy for a child in pain is beyond my comprehension.
Discussion
During our car ride to get medical care for Archer, Vanessa was saying how the child is two years old and this is the second trip to Urgent Care. She was not liking the ratio here…two trips in two years. She was hoping the trend didn’t continue. My response was…it is a boy thing. Don’t get your hopes up.
She then brought up the list of many times Donovan has had accidents in the past. He is part of the reason I have so many gray hairs. 😂 Again…divine intervention.
In going over the list of injuries to his arms alone, it sparked a convo about one we discussed in detail. I feel led to share a piece of that here. It was divinely orchestrated because it ties in with the revelation Father has been giving me since this weekend doing inner healing with Hannah. Everything is always connected if you have eyes to see His connectors.
When Donovan was a child, we purchased land to build a house on.
I am old…keep that in mind. Things were different years ago.
Back in the day, in the country, they didn’t haul trash off to the landfill like they do now. We used burning barrels to burn the trash. Non-burnables went to the dump of your choice. Usually, people would pick a place…and start piling the old appliances, bottles, wires, cans, cars, parts, pieces, etc. It was a localized landfill.
On this plot of land, we had an old community dump. We chose to clean it up…hauling the junk off.
Donovan
While cleaning up the pile, Donovan fell. When he fell, he put his hand out to catch his fall. The mangled metal punctured his palm. Rusty metal partially buried in soiled dirt.
If you have a queasy stomach, skip over this part.
The cuts were jagged. Also, there were thick flaps of skin you could pull back.
When I sat him down to access, evaluate, and clean the wound, I discovered I couldn’t clean it properly without a scalpel and/or scissors…along with a numbing agent.
It was not only ripped…torn…but it had been punctured. The puncture was straight in, but then also it went sideways underneath the tissue creating a pocket. I could clearly see upon closer examination the pocket had rust and dirt inside it…even after I irrigated it. The only way to clean it properly was to cut the pocket open to irrigate it.
I knew he was at risk for tetanus and an infection if I didn’t seek medical care.
ER Trip
Back then…we didn’t have Urgent Care Centers. Only the ER. I loaded the kids up and headed to the ER.
When the doctor came in and took a quick look at Donovan’s hand, he got angry with me. He lit into me with a tirade of how wrong I was to bring Donovan into the ER. He told me it was a shallow wound and it didn’t need medical care. The doctor was angry at me for “wasting his time.”
For many years, I have exercised extreme levels of tact and restraint when dealing with people. My default setting with people is to be kind, loving, patient, generous, considerate, and respectful…even when they don’t extend those same courtesies to me.
Most people over the years have no clue how much restraint I have exercised when interacting with them. I have kept my thoughts and feelings between Father and I.
That being said, I quietly sat there and let the doctor throw his little temper tantrum with me…in front of my children. I humbly took the beating.
When he sat down to reluctantly take care of my son’s hand, he discovered the wound was deeper than it appeared to be.
The doctor came to the same conclusion I had come to. Imagine my satisfaction as I watched that man pull out a sterile debridement kit. Out comes the scalpel, scissors, and tweezers. He opened the wound, irrigated it properly, and placed a couple of stitches in it.
At the end of the procedure, he very meekly said to me…you were right to bring him in. It was deeper than I originally thought.
Buckets of Water
I use an analogy all the time. Situations are opportunities for growth…to learn from. Our past experiences are wells. From that well…Father can assist us…if we want Him to…in pulling up buckets of water from those wells. Water…truth…intimacy with truth. Lessons we can learn from.
Let me share a few from this example.
One…the doctor could have chosen to be thankful/grateful a mother cared enough about her son to have his hand treated…instead of neglecting him. EVEN IF I had been wrong to bring him in. EVEN IF it was a shallow wound easily taken care of…a mom cared about her son. Not all parents give their children the same courtesy. Be grateful a parent cares.
Two…assumption is death…to all involved. Assumption is a sign of arrogance. Before assuming someone is an idiot and is wrong…dig a little deeper. Take a deeper look at the situation. Seek the truth. Don’t make snap judgment calls.
Three…even if the person is wrong…have compassion. Be kind. Be patient. Loving. Respectful.
Humility
This morning, in two separate convos…different topics…Vanessa and Hannah brought up the same truth about Father and I. We don’t brag…don’t showcase…don’t make a display of ourselves.
Vanessa was saying…you have all this information…yet you don’t make it known. I could have said a lot of things to that doctor…but I let him huff and puff…and make a fool of himself instead. While he was choosing pride and arrogance, I chose humility. To appear lesser than him. I didn’t need to exert my position; he figured out all by his little lonesome who was standing on the truth in that situation.
While I was choosing humility, the doctor was humiliating himself. I didn’t need to say a word to that man. The truth was revealed, and the truth spoke for me…much louder than if I had said anything to him. My silence…spoke volumes or he wouldn’t have corrected himself in front of me. The truth humbled him.
Security
Father is not boastful about who He is…because He is secure in the knowledge of who He is.
When someone is secure in who they are…there is no need to brag about who they are…and/or what they know. There is great strength in humble silence.
When you are standing securely on the truth…there is no need to defend your position. Defending the truth…is foolishness because Christ is the truth. He doesn’t need lowly man…to defend His exalted position.
It is like the hiker who was attacked by the black bear. The man had the advantage because he was elevated on higher ground. He was standing on the rock…above the bear.
When you are standing on the truth…and man comes to attack the truth…they are in a lower position than you. Christ is the truth, and He is on His throne. He is King.
Christ doesn’t need man to defend Him. He is OUR Defender…NOT the other way around. To defend Christ is arrogantly putting yourself above Him.
I have watched Christians for years foolishly believing they need to defend “the truth.” Arrogant. Extremely. When you see man defending truth for Christ…you are looking at a sign of an insecure person. A person who doesn’t know who they are, their place, and Christ’s place.
Wound Care
Here is another truth the doctor didn’t know when he was yelling at me. I never mentioned it to him throughout our interaction. I have quite a bit of experience in wound care. Years ago, I left a career in the medical field to come home and raise my children. Had I stayed in that field, I may have moved into the specialty of wound care full-time.
Much has changed in the years since I left, but in the old days, wound care was my jam.
I once did a five-week clinical at a hospital in Indianapolis. They split my five weeks in half. One-half of that clinical was spent solely in the wound care division. I treated a variety of wounds…including burns. This clinical instilled a love for wound care in my heart.
Despite the smells, the occasional maggots, and the rotting flesh staring me in the face, I loved treating wounds.
Give me the scalpel, the scissors, the tweezers, and get out of my way. I loved debriding the wounds. Loved seeing gaping holes slowly fill in and heal up. Loved seeing something that looked like death…find life. It always excited me to remove the bandages and see little bubbles of healthy tissue. I saw LIFE. Health.
All the work treating the wounds was paying off…life was present. Healing was happening…from the inside out.
It was a dance…with the proper nutrition, rest, and treatment plan.
Assumptions
Over the years, MANY have arrogantly assumed I was an idiot. I didn’t feel the need to correct them. It takes more strength to stand and take the beating than it does to arrogantly defend yourself.
Instead of making snap judgments about people and their situations get to know them. Seek the truth. Seek understanding about them…about their situation. This approach might save you from making an ass out of yourself publicly.
Learn to listen. Listen to learn…and then again…learn to listen. You can’t learn if you are running your mouth. Learn to close it and open your eyes and ears.
Humility is key.
Humility has the appearance of weakness…but the opposite is true. It takes enormous strength within to be humble.
Another Bucket
While revisiting this situation, Father and I brought up another bucket of water.
My love for inner healing started back in my college days. It was then, that I learned to appreciate so many layers of truths regarding life and death. Sickness and health. Growing up surrounded by people in the medical system, and then being in it myself…taught me more than I fully realized.
All those years ago, I began helping people to heal…in their physical bodies. Rehabbing the broken, the lame, the sick. I didn’t quit doing that when I came home to raise my children. My focus merely shifted to the soul body and the spirit body.
I have spent years now facilitating healing to the soul and spirit in people. Assisting Father to heal people’s wounds from the inside out.
It is really cool…to see that now. Hindsight is so clear…right? 20/20.
My entire adulthood has been dedicated to healing. Healing people…in all three bodies…always…from the inside out.
Incredible to see from this perspective after all these years.
Look at how smart Father is. Look at Him go…He should be proud as a peacock for orchestrating my life like He did. Strut those feathers honey…you should.
One Last Thought
Here is the deal. I said in the beginning I was going to share the deeper truths behind these photos. However, I am exhausted. It is 7 pm and I have been struggling to get this done all day long. Constant interruptions. Grands got back sooner than I expected.
Father went in a direction I wasn’t expecting.
Let me finish this up by saying a few of those deeper truths for you to chew on.
The snake is a picture of Satan. The serpent. Our enemy.
His tactics…include injecting venom…poison…toxicity…disease…death to our souls. This causes wounds…deep within. Think pockets of pus and infection. Deep zits…blemishes that make boils.
To get healing…we need the anti-venom to combat and heal the toxins injected into our bodies…all three…body, soul, and spirit.
Christ…the Truth…is the anti-venom. He is our healer. The truth…naturally sets you free.
Man has LOTS of solutions to help man “cope”…”manage” pain. They have lots of ways to cover up the pain…distract you from your pain.
Only Christ through His truth can heal you from the pain.
The River of Life is the natural way to heal ALL of your ailments.
If you get into the River of Life…and see the truth clearly…you will be able to identify the enemy and his tactics. No longer will the enemy have power over your life.
Some thoughts to consider. ❤️💙