Tuesday With Teri

The hubby and I are on a bit of a trip.  As most of you all know we embarked on an adventure to take our boat down the ICW to the Bahamas this month. (www.boat2bahamas.wordpress.com)

With so much beauty all around us as we travel I began to feel overwhelmed…so much to share, so few words to describe.  Everyday I am humbled by the handiwork of God and reminded to thank God for every new morning as a gift.  Funny how when the days began last week I so quickly launched into my “things to do” that I seldom thanked God for the day even starting.  I had thought my first post here would be a reflection of the wonderful things I am seeing…but no, instead God placed a lesson in my life and on my heart that has to do with hair.

This afternoon, as Scott and I spent a bit of time in a pool at the marina dock, I bemoaned to my hubby about my dwindling hair supply.  My parents blessed me in many ways, but genetically hair is not one of them.  I have fine and rapidly thinning hair.  I am probably more aware of it at this time since I must keep it covered with a ball cap to prevent a sunburned scalp.  When my head gets wet it pretty much melts away like cotton candy and I look bald.   Sigh, I don’t mean to be vain, honestly normally I don’t mind too much…I could have much worse problems and I know this….but for some reason today I was complaining.

Later, when we were back at our boat, we met a few residents of a nearby condo community out walking their dogs on the dock.  A couple and their friend.  As we listened to their stories and got to know them a bit, Deb, the wife, said, “Tomorrows the day!”   Apparently she has been battling cancer.  She is in her second chemo treatment and the prognosis is very good…but she was told she would lose her hair and now it was happening.  “I was able to be pretty okay about everything, I even already have the wigs, but yesterday when the hair came out in handfuls, I sort of freaked out.”  She said this with a smile that I am certain has been plastered on her face throughout this ordeal.  She is genuinely upbeat and grateful for her loving husband and supportive family.  “Tomorrow is the day I go to the hair dresser and have my hair cut off,”  I looked at her thick mass of curly blonde hair poking out from under a ball cap, “it’s pretty much gone on top now anyway.”  She was still smiling at her friend, but it was obvious this was not an easy time for her.

Tonight as I walked our dog, Hughie, out past the docks and over by the condos, I couldn’t help but look up at the lit windows and wonder which was hers.  I thought of her brushing her hair for the last time tonight, of her maybe trying on her wigs one more time, of her husband telling her how beautiful she is and reminding her it will grow back.  I prayed below the condo windows, asking God for continued healing and grace for them, and also asking for forgiveness for my petty concern about my follicle challenges.

I pictured this sweet couple as a well anchored boat.  Even when anchored, a boat will swing with currents and feel the pulse of the waves around it.  They may be weathering a swinging boat, but they are anchored in hope.  I am reminded that we too have a great anchor of hope in the savior whose life death and resurrection we celebrate this coming month(and always)…..so let life swing us, waves come around us, or weather grow foul…our anchor will hold.   Now, when I see my thinning hair, I will challenge myself to not think of the loss, but thank God for the reminder of the lesson of hope.

“We have this sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone a forerunner on our behalf..” Hebrews 6:19&20