It's a lovely, sunny, summer day in July. I know it's sunny not because it's July, {I live in Washington}, but because I could see it through the window from my bed that I had no business being in at 10:30 on a Friday morning. To be a little fair to myself I have been pushing through health issues for actually several years now. Some days are worse than others. With kids grown & less responsibilities as that of my younger years I can stay in bed if I want. But I have recurring internal battles sometimes too. As a result of this combination for three days straight, the bed was winning.
My window is ground level as my room is part of a converted basement. Returning from the restroom I was just giving in to a day with my covers pulled up over my head when God sent me not one, but three Angels. My photographer girl, Rikki Kay & two of my amazing grand children, brilliant Alyx, almost twelve & Princess nature girl Kaydence, five. They are determinedly hiking up the hill which is our front yard that narrows past my window to the gate where they will gain access to the backyard & screened in back porch. Up five steps & in through the kitchen to turn left down the fairly long hallway to jaunt down the fifteen stairs landing them in my room. Sounds like a neat little excursion, huh?? It's a cool old house. The quick entrance & one we always use is through the garage, however the door was locked this time.
For several days I had been sending up what I call "arrow prayers" kinda bugging God about how badly I needed my pc, which my lovely girl & her awesome Marine husband purchased for me on Mother's Day. It had technical difficulties & they took it back to have it fixed for me. I wasn't about to bother them about it but really needed it so I bugged God instead. Within days He sends Rikki. They got to my room & got me all set up & then I told her I wanted her to see how lush the blackberry bushes were getting out back. We got some clear containers to pick what was ripe. My girl, true to her one with nature persona who is practically Mother Earth incarnate, found the rose cutters & started trimming away the outrageously long trail of unnecessary growth, quickly replanted some neglected oregano & added her usual very loving touches here & there as she expertly deemed necessary. The kids always work out of their Momma's earshot for our time to be extended & I'm always on their side with that!! The old Sheridan House was feeling like entrapment lately anyway. It's a tough ministry with not just one or two but five men in various stages of lifelong griefs & addictions desperately needing God & hope. Shared housing is a revolving door. This depicts our current crew.
One of my closest & favorite brother-buddies is a forty nine year old man named Jay. He's got to be 6"2, very slim but muscular, tanned complexion as he is Spanish on his grandmother's side, long pony tail, large expressive eyes & ... an amputee. Right leg. Below knee. A patriotic prosthetic proudly displaying our American flag as the true American he is. Though a former veteran this accident is not a result of serving our country but a heinous car accident. To hear him tell his story, he came to at the accident site & nudged his buddy saying,"C'mon Ryan, wake up." And again with a nudge,"C'mon Ryan ya gotta wake up. We gotta get out of this"!! But Ryan never woke up. So my dear friend suffered the horrendous trauma of personal body loss, repercussions in court, & the demon called survivors guilt that he still feels ten years later.
At the time of the accident Jay was at the very pinnacle of seeing his goals & dreams come true. Born to be an athlete & I am personally convinced a renowned speaker of some sort as well. He has a certain soothing timbre to his voice. I have expressed this to him. A natural given voice for a therapist, a DJ, a motivational speaker, a preacher. HA!! Gotcha there Jay. Trust me he will see the humor in this. Jay was just about to get his PGA & actually wanted to teach golf. He came from a loving & decent household with an outrageously hard working father who had not one but two careers that supported my friend, his siblings & mother.
As if life's curve ball in the form of that horrific car accident weren't enough, my friend also experienced nine years, not months, YEARS of homelessness. During that time on the streets of Seattle he remarkably created a live podcast & he may need to correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he called it, "Eating For Pennies". He performed the show with his girlfriend who bounced off very well with him. They sounded like several of the very good radio show duos you hear on the air. Someone with clout finally heard the show & were going to really get it out to the masses when another tragedy befell him which I will spare the details of but put him into yet another tailspin.
I know from this man being one of my five room mates that he is polite, a gentleman, esteems women highly, is gracious & very generous. He has the tidiest room in the house & spends fifty percent of his time, probably more, in a hard rocking chair albeit a nice one. Most furniture is not made with people over six feet in mind. And really?? Rocking chairs are made for the beginnings of life and sadly, the endings. Those of us in our golden years are far from ready for that. God knows it will come soon enough!!
My girl Rikki & I spend the entire day first at the park with the kids, then her place where she made us all some scrumptious home made Spring rolls. We hop in her Jeep around 5:00 p.m. & make a stop at the infamous "Dollar Store" before heading back to Sheridan House. As we casually cruise up Sheridan Ave. enjoying the early evening sun & fresh air, we pass the last block before we get to the old house. As we just pass the corner something green catches my peripheral vision. I rudely interrupted our Mother, Daughter talk as I'd quickly flipped my head to the left seeing what it was that caught my eye & said,"Hey!! Can we go around the block??" Rikki says,"Sure".
"It's a green chair. It looks like a nice hunter green chair. A lot of what people push out to the curb is junk."
This was not a wooden chair painted green. This was not a lawn chair in a nice shade of green. Upon closer inspection this is a plush, swivel chair that is a deep hunter green. It not only rocks but fully reclines. It is solidly in tact, great condition, good quality, originally probably at least a $300.00 chair. The only thing was the material on the arms were a tad worn & there was lint around the sewn in buttons where your back would rest. So as I'm envisioning how I'm going to rearrange my comfortably sized bedroom to accommodate this lovely, comfy chair, I clearly hear God speak to my heart & say in that still, small voice,"Jay". He has spoken Jays name to me several times when I have been shopping & looking for various things and I am called to be light & life to those whom light & life has been taken from. To show love in the form of kindnesses large & small in the ways I am spiritually directed.
My former Army girl skillfully maneuvers her Jeep backwards at rather a sideways slant as all these homes were once hills. She spritefully jumps out of the drivers seat. Alyx had already been inspecting the chair with me & was at my side,{his favorite place to be by the way}. I faked helping more than actually doing anything. But my strong & agile grandson with his equally strong & agile Mother somehow got this extremely heavy & swiveling chair into the back of this Jeep. And let me say here that if this Jeep could talk it would write it's own novel with all the amazing adventures it has been on!! It's parked at a funky angle & the door won't shut. Of course we weren't prepared for this surprise so the luxury of bungees wasn't available. As we only had to cruise up past six or seven houses my grandson firmly gripped this chair while leaning over the mid-seat & reaching into the back, his stomach straddled the back of the seat while his long legs stretched to the back of the two front seats & my sturdy five year old princess kept a grip on his legs. What a sight!! It was awesome!!
We reverse into the steep driveway at Sheridan House & hop out of the Jeep. Well, I probably hopped the least. With all the traumas this fifty six year old body has been through I am not as springy as I should be & admittedly the gym has forgotten who I was.
Alyx takes Nanas tote with my keys attached & dangling & enters through the front door. He runs down the second short flight of stairs from the foyer & exits left from the hallway door into the old garage letting us in through the garage door. I show him where the garage opener is & once open he & his lovely, strong Momma get the chair deposited inside. I return through the short hallway of our converted basement & see Jays bedroom door half open as is his custom when he's in his room. He was heavily medicated, his long, thin form asleep in the rocking chair, head bent forward, long hair hanging down. A scene I have observed many, many times walking past his room to mine.
It is a personal thing to me to never awaken sleeping people. This time, I had to. As he came from his reverie in a disoriented fashion he tried to make sense of what I was saying. As he became lucid he really didn't know what to say. But I saw delight on his face. He has said himself he feels undeserving of anything. He beats himself down very, very hard as so many of us do, buying the lies that creep into our mind that occupy space without paying rent.
My kids get that beautiful, heavy chair maneuvered into his room in the place where that hard old rocker had just sat. He is proclaiming how nice & how sweet we are & how he just couldn't believe it. We were simply being the hands & feet of Jesus extended in this place I have been sent.
He is always grateful for company & very apparently didn't want it to end. But end it had to. Not without a big group hug however.
The burden in my heart is lighter knowing my friend will be in front of his small screen T.V. in his dimly lit room but in far greater comfort as his medications lull him to sleep. Everyone deserves niceness, love & comfort. Especially those life has beat up the hardest.
I will always remember the gift of this green chair. In fact, at this moment I can hear Jay snoring softly. And to think, I was merely seconds away this morning from pulling the covers over my head.
Thank you Lord. For those three Angels.
Yours At The Keys: Sher <3
