It has been a while since I have last reported on life and living through my blog. One habit that has not changed since my heart attack is my ability to procrastinate! "New" normal has become, well, rather normal around here. Eating habits leaning heavily towards fruits and vegetables, check. Taking medications each day, check. Slowly adding more exercise into routine, check. Keeping weight off, check.
I call my days anymore AHA days, since it is After Heart Attack Days. Nothing shakes your perspective, emotions, behavior like a life-threatening event. Mortality is no longer an idea or concept; it is a part of my world. Shock and fear has eased in nearly four months since my own day of infamy.
Other than a daily regimen of medications, life seems remarkably unchanged. I feel like nothing really happened, and I have to remind myself that just because my mind still thinks it can do everything like it was July 14, I have to live in a post July 15 world.
The face in the mirror looks unchanged from the harrowing experience. My body, other than easily bruised, looks healthy, even thinner. I see my doctor next month, a 6 month check-up with a cardiologist in January. Yet, imposed boundaries are necessary to keep body and soul together. Fortunately I have a host of friends and families that ask early and often, "Should you be doing that?"
My boundaries are family, appropriate ministry, and community. In family, it is husband to Amanda, father to Patrick, son and brother to Mom, Nathan & Brian. By appropriate ministry, it is reasonable goals and objectives in assisting the life and ministry of Prairie Avenue Christian Church. There are some things I will not do, and cannot do for others in the life of the church. In community, it is seeking the best for Clokey Park Neighborhood Association. Perhaps it is limitation that I have learned best from this experience. Limitation is not limiting; it is releasing. It is not failure; it is prevention. Knowing there are limits makes you aware of the possibilities within them.
Let my AHA days be filled with possibilities, within the boundaries that make life worth living in its fullness.
