Walking and Health

Walking in love requires a certain type of muscle to be exercised.  The heart is the muscle in question.  Normally a long walk would require a stretching of the muscle through a short warm up program.  Then, you begin the main portion of the activity where the muscle groups get a great workout.  Then, lastly a warm down to once again stretch the muscles in a cool down to prevent soreness later.

Walking in love, God’s love, is more of a continous stroll that you take down life’s path.  Walking in love is to step out of one’s own selfish desires and to get out there and help someone else.  Start out small, like a warm up, and eventually you’re heart muscle with crave longer, larger needs of giving and helping and loving. 

You don’t have to be a religious finatic to walk in love.  Give of your self to someone else by donating your time at the local library.  Volunteer to help at a school function, be a class mom or dad.  Help someone take their groceries to their car.  It’s the small things in life that create a better place to live for all of us.  Sometimes, just a small soft spoken word of encouragement can change a life forever.

I remember when my son was born.  He was born two weeks early and had fluid in his lungs.  I had a C-Section and as the doctor took him out I heard that sweet sound of a baby cry and then it suddenly stopped.  I couldn’t see what was going on, I could only hear the anxiousness in the nurses voices.  A stat this and a get him breathing and they whisked him out of the surgery room.  I prayed that he would be ok and my doctor doing the surgery took my hand and said they’ll take care of him.

After I had returned to a regular hospital bed and had rested for a few hours, a different doctor came in and gave me an update on my baby.  He said they were going to transport him to a different hospital just a few miles down the road where they had a NICU (a neonatal intensive care unit) that specialized in newborns.   They wheeled my baby in and he was strapped in a transporter.  It was one of those plastic incubators that you see in the movies when the new babies are born and the family is looking in at them through the glass window in the nursery.  I couldn’t hold him or touch him or let him know everything was going to be ok.  He was in an induced medical coma so he wouldn’t hurt himself and so the breathing tube in him could do it’s job and provide the oxygen his little body and brain needed to stay alive.   He was born 7 lbs 11 oz., so he was a good size baby, his lungs were just a little underdeveloped. 

I was released from Whittier Hospital three days after the C-section, and my husband took me over to the other hospital down the street, Whittier Presbyterian Hospital, to the NICU section where my baby was still in critical condition and the news was day by day as to whether he would make it through or not.  I was still very sore, so my huusband got a wheel chair and he wheeled me in to where all the special babies were.  Some were only a few ounces in weight and would be there for many months.  I looked at the incubator where my little baby lay and I started to cry when I saw all the needles coming in and out of him.  The head nurse on that shift that morning came over to me and put her hand on my shoulder.  She said he is doing well, he had a few rough moments, he is still not out of danger.  She said he was a fighter and they had  to sedate him even more than normal because he wanted to start breathing on his own and his little lungs still had some fluid in them.  She said I’ll be right back and she walked over to the nursing station and pulled something off the wall. 

She came back and had a picture of another baby.  The baby in the picture was sitting up and was about four or five months old and had a big smile and looked like the perfect baby.  She said a few months ago this beautiful, healthy little girl was lying there just like your baby and look at her now.  It may seem like he is in a bad situation, but I’m sure he is going to be just fine and will be like this little girl in a few months.  For the next few days, I lived by her words and my little Jeremy made a full recovery.  He was released two weeks from the date he was born and his lungs were completely clear of any fluid.  My heart goes out with a gratitude of thanks to all the nurses, who work in an NICU, especially Mila and the other nurses there at the Whittier Presbyterian in Whittier, California.  They are so loving and caring and understanding.

My little guy is now in his terrible two’s and I love him to death.  Everytime he gets sick with a little runny nose or a cough, I’m reminded of how fragile he was and how he nearly died and how that wonderful NICU nurse made that one kind gesture that I will remember forever.  Make an effort today to walk in love.  Your heart will leap for joy.

Jeremy taking a bath at 1 years old.