Again (Sequel to 6 Minutes Wrestling With Life) Chapter 2 Bamboo, Time and Belief ---------------- Time takes Time. As Long as Time Takes, You Must Believe. ---------------- I am one of the most impatient people on this planet. I don’t think that I have ever had anything that I put in the microwave that got fully cooked, I have always had to take it out of the microwave with :08 seconds left. I just can’t wait. That is just me. So the last 4-½ years of my daughter’s recovery has been a learning experience for me on patience. One, which I have come to master. I am now able to wait until :00 seconds to take any of my meals out of the microwave. I have learned that I am not able to speed up time by being impatient. I have learned that sometimes, time just takes time. I have come to realize that Jess’s recovery will not take days, weeks or months but rather, it most likely will take years. I really want to open up the microwave with :08 and speed up the process, but I know that will not speed up the process, and may even make her recovery process take even longer. Whatever the length of time that Jess’s recovery is going to take, I have realized that my patience is going to be a major factor in her success. Without it, success just will not be possible. So now, as much as it kills me, all of my foods comes out of the microwave with :00 seconds on the clock. I have learned to look at Jess’s recovery the way that a Bamboo shoot grows. At first, in order for the Bamboo shoot to grow, it must be put it in a very fertile soil. Then the Bamboo shoot needs to have that soil pat down and cultivated. Water and sunshine then need to be provided to it on a daily basis. After a year there will be no signs of growth. After five years, there still will be no signs of any growth. Doubt will start to set in; logic will present an almost convincing plea that you might as well give up. That would be a mistake. During the first five years, while one is looking for the Bamboo shoot to spring up through the soil, all of the Bamboo shoots growth happens invisibly underground. During that time, invisible to the eye, the Bamboo shoot is building a complex root system that will allow it to handle the massive growth that will soon occur. A bamboo shoot planter can never lose hope during the five years. That would be a mistake. Near the end of the fifth year, when the complex root system is strong enough, the Bamboo shoot explodes out of the ground and grows over one hundred feet tall, growing nearly three feet per day some days. I look at Jess’s recovery in the same light. My wife and I have planted a Bamboo shoot. BetyJane, myself and Jess’s siblings Maverick, Travis and Cassidy have all provided a very fertile soil for Jess to grow in a loving home. BettyJane and I provide the water and sunshine daily through proper care and nutrition. We are always researching and experimenting with new vitamins, minerals, fats and oils that will aid in the healing process of Jess’s brain. We have stayed the course. It has been 4 ½ years. Jess’s growth has been barely visible to the naked eye, but we keep our faith, and I know that the growth is happening, underneath, just not visibly, as of yet. I believe that Jesss growth is happening underneath, in the vast array of her brains neurological connections. The intricate electrical connections in Jess’s brain are regenerating themselves in the phenomenon of neurogenesis, and when those connections become strong enough, Jesss growth will become visible. That’s what I believe. And just like with the Bamboo shoot, after 4 ½ years logic would say otherwise. That is the beauty of living in the 10%, it is free of any and all logic. In the 10%, logic is replaced with unconditional, irrational belief. The magic ingredients that make great things happen. I believe that as soon as the complex root system in Jess’s brain reinvents itself and becomes strong enough to support outward growth, growth will become visible to the naked eye. A few weeks ago I was talking to Jess and told her that I wanted her to concentrate on lifting her legs up as she lay in her bed. Jess is non-mobile and that was a tremendous request to ask from her. She had no immediate response. A few weeks went by. One night, as I sat watching TV, from across the room, I saw Jess raise her left leg in the air. Real high. High enough to shock, even me. She repeated the lift a few times, just for confirmation. Each time, Jesss straight leg rose in the air and came crashing down onto her bed. Thump. It had taken Jess 4 ½ years, but Jess’s Bamboo shoot had finally started to crack the soil and spring out of the ground. Just a tremendous reimbursement of faith and belief restored itself in my inner being that night. For a few hours. It was soon replaced with that nagging feeling that something was seriously wrong. The nagging became knocking. I dont want to answer, but somehow I know I will be soon forced to.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 01:56:21 +0000
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