Bless Your Heart

Two weeks ago I got another one of those phone calls.  My dad had suffered a heart attack and was taken by ambulance to Foothills Hospital.

It turned out to be severe; one of his arteries was 100 percent blocked.  He underwent angioplasty and recovered for a week in hospital.  Now he’s home, adjusting to his new lifestyle and medications.

Considering the circumstances surrounding the attack (ie. that he was visiting my sister in Calgary just minutes from one of the best medical facilities in Alberta instead of driving through the mountains of BC, alone, as he was just two days before) I believe our family experienced a miracle.  Even the doctors said the only reason he’s still with us is because God didn’t want him yet.

Surprisingly, my dad had just undergone a thorough physical.  His cholesterol and blood pressure were good.  He doesn’t smoke.  He was a 70-year-old who acted like a 40-year-old.  How could he not have any warning he had Coronary Artery Disease?

Well, it turns out he did have some warnings.  But since he’d been given a clean bill of health, he chalked it up to indigestion or fatigue.  And since his brother died at age 70 from a stroke, he had studied up on the symptoms for stroke, not heart attack.

I heartily believe in miracles, but I also believe in being educated.  If you have any of the following symptoms:  chest pain or discomfort (pressure, squeezing, fullness), pain or discomfort in the arms, neck, jaw, back, or stomach, shortness of breath, cold sweats, nausea, or lightheadedness – call 911 immediately.

Back to School

Kids are already back in school.  Did this summer go by fast, or what?  I’m not ready to tackle that tedious-yet-highly-creative job of packing nutritious, exciting, and delicious lunches again.

I am glad the back to school shopping is over.  Juggling supply lists, clothing lists, grocery lists, and footwear lists (come on shoe manufacturers – don’t you know we need white soles for indoor shoes?) is quite exhausting.  Add in combination locks, boxes of tissue, haircuts, registering, sharpening pencils, and labeling lunchboxes, and I’m about ready for another vacation.

This year we did some back to school shopping at West Edmonton Mall (after we shopped locally, of course).  If you do your back to school shopping there next year, may I remind you of a few things:  wear your most comfortable shoes, park close to the stores you need, and remember to take the roll of loonies out of your purse first.

With all this talk of “back to school” (including my husband who went back to school last year to work on his CMA designation) I’ve started thinking about it myself.

I didn’t go to university after high school.  I went the technical college route – one intense year of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. classes.  It wasn’t until years later, when we paid off my husband’s student loan, that I realized how nice it was I didn’t have one.  University is an awfully expensive place to “find” yourself.

But I’ve finally thought of something I might enjoy studying at university:  Human Resource Management.  The question is:  Do I have time to go to school while managing the needs of a family of seven?  If only “Human Resource Management” meant food prep, laundry, and back to school shopping, I’d already have my doctorate.

On Religious Education

During a survey a few years ago, I recommended a comparative religion component be included in the Grade 5 Bible class.  I believed it would be beneficial for children to understand the differences (and similarities) between Christian denominations and other world religions.

At that time I also suggested delegates from the various faiths do the teaching to ensure they were represented fairly.  Perhaps this would have been too difficult to correlate, but I didn’t expect the whole program to be cancelled.  Don’t you hate it when you try to do something good and it backfires?

I believe that education increases understanding.  In a time when the words “tolerance” and “respect” are waved as banners above us, wouldn’t it be easier to tolerate and respect others’ religious beliefs if we actually tried to understand them through education?

Notice I say “tolerate”, “understand”, and “respect” – not necessarily “accept”.  We don’t have to accept or adopt something into our own lives in order to understand it or respect those who believe it.

If the Bible (or religion in general) isn’t taught in school, will it be taught at home?  I think there may be some parents who want to teach their children but don’t know what to say because they haven’t received any religious training themselves.  It can be confusing with so many differing views out there.

Lately, the loudest view seems to be non-believers screaming “No God – No Religion!” in an attempt to save the rest of us from our folly.

Rest assured there are still plenty of believers.  I love it when people tell me of their faith or how a prayer was answered.  Keep it up folks!  We can continue to believe and study the Bible even without a class at school to help us along.