The Upside . . .

. . . of biopsy surgery:

Part II of a continuing conversation with the lovely nurse, my companion now through two long procedures, who has departed the institutional Catholic church but has a serious prayer life, and who pressed a medal portraying Mary the Mother of Jesus into my hand before I left for my surgery, a medal she had had blessed for me the day before;

Part II of a continuing  conversation with my surgeon, who has departed the institutional Protestant church but has spent her life saving others, probably as a result of the same experience that sent her right out the church doorway;

Part I of a FB conversation with a former student, a now college-age Orthodox Jew with whom I have had no contact for four years, who caught me online during one of my "on" periods in this lengthy and otherwise boring and sleepy recovery day and wanted to talk about his own struggles toward adulthood.

My very first spiritual director always emphasizes "attention,  reverence, and devotion" as the most appropriate and desirable stance toward others. It seems that a couple of days' worth of the implacable snail's pace at which medical procedures and recovery therefrom proceed offers ample opportunity for practice.

It also seems that the Holy Spirit apparently spends her time arranging the most unexpected kinds of encounters.