Music has a way of touching our souls. Yesterday Nick and I were listening to an ’80’s station on the radio. Then “Cherish,” by Kool & the Gang’s came on. Nick loves this song. Imagine him singing along with the chorus,
“Cherish the love we have
We should cherish the life we live
Cherish the love
Cherish the life
Cherish the love
Cherish the love we have
For as long as we both shall live.”
The lyrics really spoke to my heart and I have thought a lot about them today. It is often very hard to decide to cherish the life that we are living when we are facing difficult things.
Over the past few months, we have noticed that periodically Nick struggles to breathe. This past week, it got worse and he didn’t want to get out of bed. We thought it might be a cold or the flu or … we didn’t know what, but because he has a very difficult time coughing effectively, after the 3rd day, we took him up to the Emergency Room. It was pretty scary for Arden and me. After six hours of tests, they found no indication of infection at all. The cold like symptoms are probably seasonal allergies. But his struggling to breathe is a different issue. The doctors decided that Nick as the initial stages of congestive heart failure. His lungs are not clear, they are hazy on the X-ray and his heart is enlarged a bit more compared to a similar X-rays taken over the past 18 months. This was a good thing. Not that he has one more thing to be concerned with, but rather it is a good thing that we met a doctor who dug deeper into what was going on with Nick and has found the early stages of something that we can begin treating.
Another funny thing about this current situation is Nick has started singing another song from the ’90’s. The chorus from this hit by Billy Ray Cyrus goes…
“But don’t tell my heart
My achy breaky heart
I just don’t think he’d understand
And if you tell my heart
My achy breaky heart
He might blow up and kill this man.”
Nick hasn’t sung this song for years and since his time in the ER on Thursday, he has randomly started singing just the chorus. It seems that he does understand what is going on and is using music to make a comedic statement. It makes me laugh. The picture that I added to this blog is one of my favorites. Nick is laughing.
Making the decision to cherish the love and the life we live has made all the difference in my attitude and reaction to my life’s experiences.
We do need to cherish the life we live. Even the things that are hard to do, can bring sweet tender moments of joy. Has this happened to you? I would love to hear about your experiences.
Please share this blog with others. In order to get a book agent and work with a publisher, I need to increase the readership of my blog and you can help.
If you want to get a copy of the book about my journey with Nick as soon as it is available, click here to sign up.
