Mick McKellar Update--Day +79
The intrepid walkers chanced the gray haze and threatening skies of morning to visit the Zumbro River near the Rochester Civic Center. The weather, warming toward mid-morning held promise of rain and humidity for the afternoon. Spring has begun its surge toward summer and plants are decorated with buds and blooms. We snapped some photos near the Civic Center on the river and made it back to the transplant house before any heavy rain fell.
Tomorrow is another long day at the hospital (early tests, later consults) as we pursue the battle with the rash and the mystery of my dying red blood cells. This morning, Marian judged the rash as better than yesterday, so we may be making progress.
Old house
Our visits to the clinic and hospital remind me of working on our house. It is an old house, more than 135 years old. We bought it from the family that built the home and added on to it over the years. As houses age, they settle a bit, and despite reinforcements in the black hole of Calcutta (our basement), I do not believe there is a square corner or completely level floor in the beloved old place.
Trouble comes when repairs must be done. Each problem resolved discovers two more that need work.
My latest challenges in the BMT process seem to cascade along the same slope. Changes in medication correct one number on the spreadsheet, but seemingly spawn anomalies elsewhere. Like our old house, the structure is still standing strong, but there is a lot of interesting (and maybe not so good) stuff going on inside the walls, the plumbing, the electrical systems, and even the heating systems.
A little light music, please
I often refer to the qualities of the light that surround me. Lighting is a mood changer and often the driver of wondrous multifaceted and multi-layered displays of beauty. I hear music with my ears. I see music with my eyes. Pondering this prompted the poem below. I hope you like Subtle Symphonies.
Your prayers, good thoughts, and communications lighten our days, brighten our nights, and give us hope. Thank you.
God bless and good evening,
Mick
And now: Subtle Symphonies
I've been known to shut my eyes when listening to beautiful music, the music that quickens the pulse but relaxes the spirit, the music that often brings tears to those closed eyes. From the rhythms of dancing Gypsies along a Romanian river to a waltz of flowers to the soothing sway of a nocturne, music can be subtle as a whisper or bring thunder from the heavens on Bald Mountain.
I've been known to shut my ears when the wondrous beauty of day and night dance with each other. I've watched the golden fire of the sun quenched in Lake Superior, only to see the silver ghost of the moon rise in response, plunging all into blue and indigo, flashing on the waves. Our own attempts at pushing back the night, stars shining up counterpoint the stars twinkling down, and the moving lights of vehicles become a river of stars. Morning sun plunging through the misty forest sings a mighty tune, and the subtle music of the heavens touches my soul. There is music all around to see and to hear, to taste and to smell, and to hold in the palm of your hand.
Mick
Subtle Symphonies
The music of the heavens calls to me,
Although, I'm certain, not to me alone.
Could day and night play such a symphony,
And leave unchanged all human minds but one?
Kaleidoscopic patterns in the night,
Send subtle, lifting, drifting, shifting hues,
In dancing shadowed, brilliant, flashing bright
Layers, all laced with deepest velvet blues.
Silver patinas grace the soft twilight,
As woodwinds, whispering of melodies
To come, infused with brilliant brass so bright.
A golden fanfare strumming through the trees,
Whose softly mellow chords that warm my eyes,
Build satin rhythms, blue and red to see,
The fiery tarantella of sunrise.
Else silver turns to pewter and the strain,
Becomes the rumbling, bumbling beat of drums,
The soaring strings in weeping of the rain,
Flash quicksilver in lightning's brilliant thrums.
The waltz begins, as fanfares clear the skies,
And rainbow chords play complex harmonies.
The sun and clouds weave music for the eyes,
And soothe my soul with subtle symphonies.
Mick McKellar
May 2011