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Life, actually…

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ICU IN MY DREAMS

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(Just a few sunrises ago, I was still in the care of the medical helpers who dominate this village. Today, I am unfettered and healing, grateful for my fate. But I am so proud that I had a chance to look ceilingward at the smiling and intense faces looking down at me, taking careful care of me…strangers who for some reason suspended all dogma and politics and personal challenges for the hours it took to make sure I was properly treated.)

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Here is an entry from my Red Clay Diary, penciled and scrawled while still looking up at those faces.

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PROGRESS NOTES

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Bedbound,

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Bound into bed,

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Here lie I abed—in the ICU, to be exact.

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ICU, do UC me?

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ICU in my rose-tinted memories.

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And you are with me always.

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Thanks for adding to the velvet textures of my life.

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I remember the memorable things,

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I file away the missteps for later study,

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I cherish the sweetness you intend to offer,

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I cherish the idea that there is more cherishing to come

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(These words are for those who care about me, care for me, take care of me, care along with me, care for others. As a later priority, I hope they also  take care of themselves. And I hope that they, the caregivers and helpers of the world, will be properly taken care of in their times to come.)

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There is beauty all around. Sometimes it reveals itself at just the right moment

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 © Jim Reed 2022 A.D.

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