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Half And Half
by Shirley Schroeder

     Today I took a walk and came across a flowering bush in trouble. Many
  branches were bare. Half of it looked dead. But the other half of that bush
  was loaded with tiny pink flowers. The flowered branches seemed to stretch
  out toward the sun.

     This half-dead, half-alive bush made me think of myself. I am now in my
  seventies and half of me isn’t flowering anymore either. Once I ran up and
  down stairs…now I look for an elevator. No more can I vacuum all the rooms
  on the first floor but must go one room at a time, taking a break between each.
  As a church organist I used to spend hours on the organ bench practicing.
  Now my back lets me sit there half an hour and it wants a break. Worst of all,
  an injury to my left leg won’t let me reach for the bottom pedals anymore. I
  transpose the notes up an octave and use my other leg.

     And yet, there’s a big part of me that’s still blooming. I can do those stairs,
  but one at a time. I can do the vacuuming, but one room at a time. I can play
  the organ, but at half-hour intervals, and pedal notes up an octave sound just
  fine.

     As hard as it is for me to accept the changes I’ve had to make, I thank God
  every day that I can perform these tasks as well as I do. And I have learned
  there are advantages to needing to rest more. My prayer life has increased
  tremendously because I have more time to pray while I take those breaks.

     So, like that flowering bush, half dead yet half alive, I will do what I can and
  bloom with everything I still have left.

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