Peace of Wild Things - August 28

Sun is setting over the Charles. I see "alpenglow" on the collection
of high rises I can see from our 13th floor window---these modern
"peaks" of Boston. Mark's left leg has generously---and
successfully--donated the Gracilis muscle to his lower right leg!
Though I have no details, I've been informed the surgery went
beautifully! One of the residents who was in the OR with Mark today
just called and said they are just finishing up. They expect to wheel
Mark into the recovery room in the next 45 minutes or so where he'll
hang out for another hour or 2 before they will bring him back up here
to me.

We now embark on 7 to 10 days at MGH with "blood flow monitoring"
every hour in the flap to make sure it's doing what we want it to do.
The nurses are now preparing Mark's room for him to return to it in
the next hour or so--they've jacked up the temperature to the 80s and
have a special light above the bed much like one of those things that
keeps french fries hot in the bin at Burger King. Success of the flap
is associated with constantly warm termperatures in the post-operative
week. I'm heading down to Filene's to pick up a new bikini for this
very special week in our lives...:0

Attached is a picture from a weekend visit. Still smiling. And yes,
Mark is actually doing a pull-up in the picture.

Once again we have been blessed by your belief in us and in Mark's
ability to take on this challenge. Doubt not the power of a supportive
community!

I'll leave you with a poem by Wendell Berry, a favorite one of both
Mark and I. Mark gave me a copy of this collection of poems when I
first met him 14 years ago.



The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry, Collected Poems 1957-1982
(Thanks to David and Kathleen for bringing this by this weekend.)


YES!