The Crooked Books

I was looking at our bookshelf today wondering why a bookshelf looks so much more interesting when some books are placed on the shelf laying down, placed at angle, etc against the straight books. I mean, isn’t it a better use of bookshelf space to place them all upright, in an orderly fashion? Don’t folks like looking at straight and orderly rather than messy and disorganized? Look at a library – everything is in its’ place with no surprises – just as you’d expect.

Life isn’t like a library, though. Our own bookshelf is a mirror image of our lives – try as we might, God keeps pulling straight books off the shelf and stacking them up to keep the straight ones from falling, placing others at weird angles, while strangely leaving other books at just the perfect spot begging to be touched and read. It always seems the crooked books are the ones with torn corners and well read. The crooked books invite relationship.

Tell me, who would you rather spend time with in a coffee shop – a bookshelf full of vertically placed books or a bookshelf mixed with a bunch of crookedly placed books?

Randy Pausch Died Today

Great video from a professor diagnosed with cancer on how to live and enabling the dreams of others. He is giving his last lecture in this video. He died today after battling cancer.

I don’t agree with his comments on karma, but he has some great wisdom in his comments none the less.

Ken Hinckley, a friend that works at Microsoft Research, use to be a student of his.

Great News!

The past couple of days have been totally amazing for Maggie, and today it got so much better.

Maggie went for a visit to the neurologist today and, surprisingly, he was very pleased that her affect and overall demeanor had been so bad lately. What that proved to him was that the diet was working and she was actually over medicated from her seizure meds as a result. Her diet has actually become her new medicine!

The doctor joked that when people are over medicated on her main seizure meds, Topamax, it makes them feel "dopey", jokingly calling it Dopamax.

So beginning tonight, Maggie begins getting weaned off of Topamax. She’ll be completely off her main seizure med within three weeks. Maggie’s face lit up when she learned that the diet was having that much of an impact. She has told us that she is able to think more clearly.

In less important news, I’ve been following along this diet with Maggie so she isn’t going at it alone. She’s on 10 grams of carbs per day, while I’m on 20 – 30 grams per day. I’m down about 23 pounds over the past month and a half, currently at 197. It is my first time getting below 200 in over 5 years!

What It Looks Like When God Is Working

I’ve been thinking a lot about the times in our lives when God is chipping away and what it looks like. As I’ve been watching and listening, these are some pictures that God has painted for me:

• a woman sitting alone in a corner of Starbucks, drinking her coffee of the day, looking distantly away, a tear finding its’ way down to the corner of her lips
• a little girl smiling at her daddy, proudly showing off her missing two front teeth
• neighbors coming by to drop off stuff for a friends garage sale
• a house sells in the first week when nobody else’s house sells
• a house is on the market for over a year with no offers
• a family approaches the edge of financial ruin
• a young girl smiles and plays for the first time in several months, and has hope
• another young girl in a life-long battle for the control of her mind
• a family gets to their last $200 in their account with several weeks to go to pay day
• a couple laying in bed late at night, their hands brushing against each other, thankful for a little escape from the pressures that won’t go away
• a little girl sitting alone, longing to hold the hand of her father who just died
• a young man turning his face away from the images he knows could snag his heart
• a wife curled away in her bedroom after learning her husband has been having an affair
• a husband and wife going for a walk together
• a brother brushing his little sister’s hair
• a little boy making his way down the sidewalk, determined to go to church

I can’t say I understand what God is doing and how He works, but I know it when I see it, and it is a beautiful thing to behold.

Maggie’s Best Day in Several Months

Yesterday was Maggie’s best day ever over the past month to two months – interacting and smiling like we’d not seen before, attended Taekwondo and participated for a while, AND her cycle finally stopped, too! Wow – what a day! We’ll enjoy and celebrate this day that He gave her and pray that today builds upon yesterday.

Wouldn’t You Know It….

Maggie had an awesome day today – was at Taekwondo for the first time in over a month.

Maggie’s Diet and Other Issues

My apologies for not keeping up to date, but things have been quite hairy here the past couple of months

We began Maggie on the Atkins Diet several months ago, and then transitioned her to the full-blown diet change last month. She’s only allowed 10 grams of carbs per day under this new diet. She’s tolerating the diet really well and trying to be very positive with it. We were hoping at this point her energy and affect would be much improved, but other complications are throwing some kinks in. Hopefully reducing her seizure meds will bring about improvement, too.

Maggie has only had one seizure in the past month since being on this new diet, compared to several "noticeable" seizures per week before the diet. When asked about the diet, Maggie said she’s able to think better and more clearly.

Benefits from the diet are being blurred, though, by complications with her monthly cycle. She’s been on the same cycle for the past month and a half. Her doctors believe there is a direct correlation between her cycle problems, seizures, and her brain issues. She’s taking 3 birth control pills per day and iron supplements to help get it under control, and her brain is fighting 100% of the way. Ironically enough, her doctors also believe the diet is helping her cycle not be worse than it already is.

So, with the diet change and her continual monthly cycle, Maggie has had a lot to deal with. She’s very tired and has very little energy. She seems very dazed and withdrawn. Every so often, we’ll see a sparkle in her eye, but it has been very rare over the past month and a half.

Please pray that God would heal Maggie’s brain in this area, so that her body would begin to heal and that she would be able to reap the full benefits of this diet change.