To Hell with HIPPA

Digging fingernails into my wrist, salt water fills her eyes as she looks directly at me, "Please don't get sick."

Three little old ladies sit in chairs ... not wheelchairs like most in the room ... but chairs.

They can still walk.

We're packing up to leave ... storing guitars, drums and tambourines ... hauling out the sound system ... when I do my last walk around the room hugging every woman and man there ... listening to whatever they have to say ... mostly trying to not cry as moister fills their eyes and they say, "Thank you," or "Please Come back next week."

Lona, John, Faye and Mary take care of business as I pry my wrist from her fingernails.

"I'll do my part," I smile, hugging her. "I don't like being sick."

"Don't die," she says.

"It's not on my 'To Do List' either," I reply rubbing my hands.

I kiss the top of her white head ... surely breaking shitloads of HIPPA requirements for Nursing Homes.

The two little old ladies sitting besideher  look at me expectantly so I laugh and kiss them too ... shattering the record of HIPPA violations in a Nursing Home.

It's funny.

We're not allowed to take their pictures but ... each and every one of them want a touch ... a hug ... a kiss ... and a promise to come back next week.

"Hey," I say grabbing her wrist, "I'll make a deal with you. I won't die if you don't die."

Breaking into a grin, she lays her white haired head in my hands and cries.

I hug her again and cry too.

To Hell with HIPPA.

Who says God doesn't talk our loud?

Some days I have to fight through emotions, distractions, lack of inspiration and preoccupation to find words.

Today's such a day.

Sarah's hosting a business meeting on island so I volunteer to help and get the coffee and breakfast delivered on time.

Thursday is also the Bar Church Nursing Home Gig so part of my brain is planning what happens and pumping myself up for the inmates who pay to be incarcerated so their families can have a life.

I'm also horrified to learn our friend Patti is having surgery for Cancer, had to find a Hospital to "take her" because she has no insurance and she's already lost her oldest son to the war in Afghanistan.

I'm thrilled to see the joy Jodee and Cheryl are experiencing with the birth of their first grandchild.

"Should I write about how much I enjoy watching Sarah own her element and how I used to do that?"

"The joy of the Nursing Home Gig always leaves me emotionally high and, when it's over, I'm always questioning who's ministering to who ... maybe I should write about that?"

"Why do bad things happen to really good people who have already been kicked in the stomach and what point is God possibly trying to make now?"

"I don't have any grandchildren yet ... that's not true because I have Jeremy and Terenca's girls ... to go with our girls ... who perfectly match our kids ... and like Jodee and Cheryl ... I'm thankful for the happiness of it all."

If that weren't enough to wade through, Sarah's folks are here and they're a needy couple ... always wanting to know where something is and bold enough to ask.

Plus it's raining and I'm in the "Outdoor Office" on the Beloved Back Deck so I'm a bit miffed.

Pondering these things while staring at a self imposed timeline ... "O Happy Day" streams directly from Heaven through Spotify into the speaker I perpetually have blasting.

I think God's giving me both a blessing and a challenge!

I've got this day!

It's full of good and it's got some bad but ... it's mine.

Who says God never has anything to say out loud?

I have to go to the Nursing Home Now and make the inmates happy.

And enjoy what I've got for as long as I have it.
_______________

P.S. The picture has absolutely nothing to do with the story. I just like it. And Sarah got me the teeshirt which is Willie Nelson who I love ... and I'm playing which I also love. ... but I wouldn't draw too much from it.