Our Most Holy Brain

Two days ago after Dean's bath aide and nurse left the house, he questioned his memory by asking me if that was his nurse Carol who just left. I gently corrected him with Carla's name. He has had Carla come to the house every week for over a year now and still has trouble remembering her name before, during, and after her visits.

Imagine my surprise and shock when Dean left the doctor's office yesterday by shaking hands and saying "Good-bye, Cori" to the young man who was shadowing his doctor. They had just been introduced once at the beginning of our session. Was it a "white-coat" syndrome? Or just a fluke? I had to smile.

With Dean's array of symptoms lately, mostly involving sleep, appetite, and memory, he's proving to be quite the medical challenge for his doctors. As a matter of fact, the psychiatrist yesterday said he wants to research the medicines out there for what would be best for Dean.

The doctor did ask if it was possible to manage his diet better. I almost laughed. My full-time occupation is managing his diet. We mostly try to have regular, healthy meals, but Dean is just hungry all the time. I mean literally all the time. And with his memory getting worse, he asks for another meal, almost as soon as he's up from the table. I have been welcoming the end of the month when our cupboards are almost bare. At least then I can honestly say, there's nothing to eat.

And then there's his sleep habits lately. I would have thought that going to his day program yesterday and staying awake all day would have meant a good night's sleep and getting back to a healthy day and night pattern of sleep. But here he is sleeping the day away again. Barely staying awake long enough to eat his meals. One day I tried three times when his Meal on Wheels arrived to get him up to eat at noon. If he's maintaining his weight, we can thank his new sleep habits. Except he's missing out on exercise through inactivity too, so muscle weakness is also a concern.

I'm not sure what the doctors can do, if anything, to fix these medical problems for Dean. Our bodies, as we age, are deteriorating. There's no stopping the natural process of life and death.

But Dean illustrates to me just how important our brain is to our overall health. If our bodies are considered the temple of God, then surely the brain must be the Most Holy Place in that temple. We communicate to God through our thoughts, our brains. He resides there as surely as His glory shone above the ark of the covenant. Today and each day, I must be careful not to defile it.

As Oft...In Remembrance of Me

This week at church we had communion, which is a practice held in common with most Protestant churches. Our denomination holds this special service quarterly, and is a reverent, symbolic portrayal of the last supper of Jesus and His disciples in the upper room, right before His betrayal and death on the cross.

Dean was excited when I told him about it happening today, and said he was looking forward to celebrating it with a pastor or elder this afternoon, as they have started doing for him and other homebound members, since he stopped attending church about a year ago.

As with several church denominations, our communion, or partaking of the bread and "wine", is open to all Christians who may be attending. Since Jesus wanted us all to be as one, we welcome all who choose to share in this celebration of the death of Christ.

We also encourage soul searching prior to receiving the emblems, and this is done in a very demonstrative way in Seventh-day Adventist churches. We offer a footwashing ceremony, or service of humility, as it's been called in other churches of long ago. In this simple practice, we are admonished to put away all past differences among ourselves and to serve each other in the most humble way. The way that Jesus demonstrated for us and even told us to do, in remembrance of Him. With a towel about His waist, our Savior humbly bowed before each of the disciples and washed their feet too.

Just as the un-fermented bread and un-fermented wine, symbolic of being without sin, are done in His remembrance, we humbly bow before another church member, and with basin and towel in hand in a smaller room outside the sanctuary, wash each other's feet, and offer prayer together.

Recalling the service today, I too am excited about getting a "repeat performance" when the pastor or elder arrives this afternoon. "As oft as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." I Cor. 11:26

A Good Custom

It was so nice of the pastor to bring communion to Dean today. He and the new student pastor came, just as promised on the phone to Dean this past week, and we held our own private communion service here at home. Dean has not been attending church for some time now, due to some complications with medicines, having so many falls, and just his increased dementia issues.

It has been less stressful for me to celebrate our Sabbaths alone, but lately Dean has OK'ed me to attend by myself, and so long as I'm comfortable leaving him for that long, I'll keep going on my own for now.

It pains me to think of Dean not attending church though, as it has been a part of his life since he was born. His parents were staunch attenders. And so were Dean and I while raising our daughter and all through our marriage. Even when Dean was living a not-so-stellar lifestyle, he was still in church every time the doors were open. He especially misses the fellowship now, a part of church life that some don't treasure nearly enough.

We should all cherish our freedom of public worship more than we do. One never knows when or how the privilege could be taken away.

Luke 4:16 "...as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day..." Like Jesus, attending church is evidently a habit we should all get accustomed to.

P.S. Any church  members who would like to visit Dean would certainly be welcome!