Pillow talk

Sunday, July 12, 2026

(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)

 

Pillow talk

The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

You have visited the land and watered it;

greatly have you enriched it.

God’s watercourses are filled; you have prepared the grain.

As I recovered in my hospital bed, and now at home, and perhaps today at church, I carry my red heart pillow. It protects the break in my sternum, which takes around a year to heal. I guess you know what people wrote. I want to share with you what perhaps you’ve already seen, and maybe even inspired, although I like to think this is new to you.

Well, don’t spend much time on that verb tense, David. Past? Present? Future? Just be here with me now. Like I am with you.

Ok.

Music fills up my mind again. You fill up my senses, Lord. Like a song in the forest.

So here goes:

 

YOU’RE DOING AMAZING! GLAD YOU’RE GETTING OUT SO SOON. GOD BLESS!  …Brandon

“FAT DIET!! YOU’RE SO FUNNY, DAVE. AND BE WELL … Nurse Emily

KEEP UP YOUR SUPER POWER! ENJOYED MEETING YOU. ALL THE BEST TO YOU AND FAMILY … Charge Nurse Lindsay

 

So, Lord, I guess you know all these people right?

Listen, David. You know the drill, you know the words … what I have to say for you is for you, and what I have to say for them is for them. But … yes, I know them all well. Like in David’s psalm. Your psalm now … from your mother’s womb …

 

You’re doing great! Keep it up! … Lauren

Keep up the amazing work and humor … Taylor

You got this, Dave … Richard

I wish you much healing … Tiffany

Dave! You have a heart of gold! – Makinze, RN

David, you were amazing to take care of! Please take care and hope you don’t have to be back here again! – Chris A, RN

You are killin’ it! Favorite patient of the week. – Cardiac rehab Isabella

 

I feel weird typing these out, Lord. I got pretty demanding sometimes. Entitled. WASP. I sometimes apologize to younger people (I guess everybody is younger than me these days) for my baby boomer expectations). I think about Ronald Reagan’s experience after he was shot, and his sense of humor with the nurses. I hope he meant what he was saying. I hope I do. I’m really glad I can bounce these things off you, Jesus.

Once at a Kogudus retreat, when you were with your group of inmates and you all read the gifts of the spirit that Paul wrote about to those foolish Galatians (you remember right? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control … all your fingers and one thumb). What brings you joy? What troubles you? What do you want to work on?

And you always said, “I am not kind. Not really. Not for long. I move on to the next person and situation.” Your kindness is like a politician’s, you said. You really do mean what you say and feel, looking into someone’s eyes … and then when you leave you forget. There’s always someone else.

Yeah, I feel guilty. Sometimes. And this, too … I don’t repay kindness with kindness; I take it for granted. I even do that with you.

You’re being kind of hard on yourself, David. Maybe you’re trying too hard. That’s a habit with you, right? You hate the word “try,” because it worms its way into your head before you even know it.  And I don’t know, you try to get away from trying … just BEING WITH ME is right there for you, at all the moments in the time I’m giving you.

The nurses showed me how. I needed them, and they were there for me. Sometimes impatiently, sometimes not. Sometimes pushing me to push myself, sometimes softening the blows of whatever was happening. Their personalities … they have their own gifts, what they appreciate about themselves, and what they want to work on.

Here’s the note that I can’t read without crying. The last one. I think it’s because Mikayla said something about herself, about her own uncertainty, about her own relationship with you (as well as her goats and chickens and children):

Dave, it was an absolute pleasure working with you. You are such a kind and funny person and I had a blast being your nurse! I wish you the best of luck in life. God bless patients like you. You remind me of why I became a nurse! – Mikayla

Yeah, David, I love her too. I’m glad she opened her heart to you. And I’m glad she’s a nurse. Thanks for your courage, writing all this out. I love to hear you saying these things out loud.

To me.

I love you.

(Isaiah 55, Psalm 65, Romans 8, Matthew 13)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)