Saturday, April 4, 2009

Water

lourdes Pictures, Images and Photos

It began with water, it ended with water. It was raining when I awoke on Friday morning and it was raining when I went to bed at night. By four o'clock in the afternoon it had reached the highest measurable rainfall for the day and kept right on going.

By this morning the super saturated ground could take no more and ponds began to form in my back yard. If it keeps on going, by tomorrow I may take out my rod and reel and do a little trout fishing from my deck!

I got soaked taking Lindsay for her morning run and had to completely change my clothes to go to work. I got soaked running from the car park to the GO train for the morning commute, the sharp new crease in my pants washed away by the deluge.

I was Baptized yesterday by nature and I was Baptized by man--or, at least, by wife.

The best friend of a teacher at Linda's school had taken her arthritic mother to Lourdes hoping for a miracle to ease her mother's pain. This being the modern electronic age that it is, the teacher and her friend kept in touch through twitter. And through Twitter the conversation turned to me.

Or at least to Linda. The teacher told her friend that a fellow teacher had just learned her husband had cancer and the entire staff are just devastated. She asked if the friend could bring some Holy Water back from Lourdes for her to give to Linda. The teacher offered to pay. The friend, being on a Holy quest, waved away all thought of payment.

On Thursday Linda received a hug from her fellow teacher (one of hundreds of hugs she has been getting at work recently) and a plastic statue of the Virgin Mary filled with Holy Water from Lourdes.

On Friday morning I sat the quiet of the living room peacefully listening to the sound of the endless rain outside and putting together the elements of the Friday Shoot Out post. When suddenly my head felt wet. I reached up and water splashed on my hand. I turned and got a face full of Holy Water.

"What the...glub...ack..glub...!"

And I was blessed.

"Lift up your top," Linda said, "This is Holy Water all the way from Lourdes and I want to pour it on the spot where your cancer is."

So I lifted my pajama top and she poured the waters over my chest. Since I failed to ignite, the way vampires do when touched by Holy Water in the movies, I guess I must not be a vampire.

At least that worry is now off my mind.

I'm not a big believer in miracles but I have to confess, with my CT scan set for Monday, a part of me wonders what they will now find?

After all this rain.

And if the cancer is still there, well, Linda still has 3/4 of a bottle of Holy Water left.

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Image of the Virgin Mary courtesy of Photobucket