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Doctor Mickey
He had Agent Orange. Agent Orange is a powerful chemical weed killer that the U.S. military sprayed over millions of acres in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War to remove dense plant cover. For years his health had been compromised, and he had undergone the best of modern medicine. He needed heart surgery, but was not strong enough to survive that. This was the second weekend he had ended up at the ER and being admitted to the hospital.
They were both so touched by the presence and kindness of a petite female doctor making rounds on Saturday morning. She had a complex name, so his wife just called her Doctor Mickey.
He had lost one kidney to cancer, and his remaining kidney had failed and was bleeding. His hemoglobin was so low…. he felt weak and was having difficulty breathing. He needed transfusions. The kidney could not be removed due to the condition of his heart. They were facing the limits of what acute medical care could do. Saturday evening Doctor Mickey came in to talk to them about hospice. She found out he was a Veteran. And they found out Doctor Mickey is the main person from the VA that handles hospice! He was discharged from the hospital that night.
They knew it was time to have his care managed at home with the VA hospice. A few days later, follow-up visits with his primary physician and oncologist were tearful thank-yous and good-byes. They had been so blessed with excellent medical care. He would still be transported Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to receive dialysis, and any needed transfusions would be done right next door. He would continue to receive the processes that were giving him the best quality of life.
Now they could do the things they enjoy and spend time with those they love.
Thank you, Doctor “Mickey” and thank you, Jesus! The way had been prepared. They were being guided and blessed. The Lord had them….
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. ~ Jeremiah 29:11
(The photo snip is of him sharing this news with his brother using a humorous filter!)
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Change is Full of Opportunity
She told her sister she had been awake and did a therapy writing after having gotten a call from a precious friend. That friend was in the hospital, again, with fewer and fewer medical options seeming to exist. She also shared an attribution line “developed and produced by so-and-so” mentioning her former business partner had not gotten posted because of a 600 character limit when the guided imagery audios they had done together posted on Spotify.
Her sister gave her a set of Nature Meditation cards. She drew from the deck and read these words:
Change is Opportunity
Change can cause suffering. We suffer when our plans don’t come together as we expected, when a relationship ends, when we have to uproot our lives for one reason or another. But in the midst of the pain, there is also so much potential for joy and opportunity. When you feel your heart resisting inevitable change, visualize a tree moving through the seasons – turning red and golden autumn, shedding its leaves in winter, growing new buds in spring, and showing its glorious greenery in summer. Consider how you can move through the ebbs and flows of the seasons in your own life with the grace of a tree, and repeat this affirmation: Change is full of opportunity.
Shortly after she got home from visiting her friend at the hospital, she received news that her former business partner had passed some time after midnight. She shuffled, shuffled, shuffled and drew that same card again!
Three nights later, she was again awake following a middle-of-the-night text message from her sister-in-love. Her beloved brother-in-law had been taken to the hospital by ambulance, likely having a heart attack. This coming just after their receiving information that surgery on his heart was not likely an option due to his many other medical complications.
As dawn began breaking, she shuffled, shuffled, shuffled — even spreading the cards out face down on the bed and stirring them over and over — and then she drew that same card again!
Change is full of opportunity….
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, is a famous Bible verse found in Jeremiah 29:11.
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MDS Leukemia and Seeing God Clearly
It had only been one day earlier she had been on the phone with a friend/colleague for 90 minutes. The friend had received a diagnosis of MDS Leukemia.
Her friend was a Nurse Practitioner, so no novice to medical information. The prognosis for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) — sometimes called pre-leukemia — varies widely. Median survival ranges from about 9 months for very high-risk disease to over 8 to 12 years for very low-risk disease. About one-third of patients progress to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Outlook depends heavily on individual risk scores, blood counts, and genetic features.
“There’s a reason for everything,” her friend had said, “this is bigger than me.”
Her friend’s to-do list included:
1. Remember to live in the moment.
2. Pay attention to right effort.
3. Follow inner guidance.They spoke of aspects of global healing practices they knew of and many things that might best support living, rather that just trying not to die. They read from Louise Hay; they talked about Dr. Alex Howard’s saying we are all healing from childhood emotional neglect; and they agreed about the need for boundaries and creating a sense of safety, while cultivating self-love and joy.
The following day this showed up in her inbox:
Today, Steve talks about his response to his cancer diagnosis.
The Daily Tejaniya
Jan. 17, 2026Recently, I’ve had a precious opportunity to use Sayadaw’s
practice in my life, along with other meditation approaches
I’ve learned over the years.In February 2018, I was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a highly
aggressive brain cancer. The disease is terminal, not a good
prognosis. But from the first day, I honestly have never had
fear, nor hope.Instead, I have been very interested in everything that’s going
on, including the pain and suffering that happens.❤️🙏
The remarkable thing is, she doesn’t remember having seen this 7 months earlier and she does not remember having forwarded it to a person named Doug. She cannot explain how it got into her hands today after talking to her friend the day before and learning of her diagnosis and witnessing how her friend intends to navigate all she is facing.
And this quote also showed up on her Facebook page:
“The moment you come to trust chaos, you see God clearly. Chaos is divine order, verses human order. Change is divine order, verses human order. When the chaos becomes safety to you, then you know you’re seeing God clearly.” ~ Caroline Myss
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Help from Martin
Following several strong storms this summer, I have often seen an elder person using a grabber/reacher to pick up myriad branches and twigs dumped onto the sizable lawn.
This day, since the person was very near the road, as I rode by on my bike I spoke, “It is a beautiful morning.”Shocked to hear a female voice reply, I circled my bike back around. “You are a woman,” I blurted out! I had only seen this person dressed in worker attire, wearing a baseball cap and a mask, and I had assumed it was a man.
She told me she has a lot of allergies so she wears a mask everywhere she goes and always has it on when she is working out in the yard.
Fifty-two years ago they bought this house. Her husband, Martin, passed in 2015. Her name is Gloria.
“He is still taking care of me,” she says as she uses her grabber-reacher tool to pick up another twig before going on to explain,”had I gone to get the roll-out trash bins, I could have been right there when that big limb came crashing down.”
The vulnerable trees in their back yard are scheduled to be removed soon….
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D-O-N-N-Y
At over ninety years of age, it is a shock to lose an adult child. Her son, Donny, had passed two years prior when she had the phone ring just one ring and stop.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
She decided to go to the phone in the house that had a caller identification feature. She could have never imagined what she would see when the phone rang a fourth time!
The caller ID showed five simple letters that meant everything to her: D-O-N-N-Y
Many cultures interpret sudden electronic malfunctions or random rings as a comforting psychological or spiritual sign of remembrance. To this day, she draws comfort from his call.
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Mints – A Double
Soon after the husband of her friend had passed the white-with-red-stripes, soft, sugary mints he loved gifting to his wife started showing up. (See “Mints”.)
For over 20 years now, this particular type of soft mint had been recognized as a welcome message of his everlasting love!
While planning to be visiting with their family in Tennessee, they learned the husband of a couple they had gotten to know through their daughter had just died. The funeral was taking place while they were there and they were going to be able to go. In the long line waiting to visit with the wife before the funeral started, she spotted a dish of the special mints across the room. She went over, picked up two, snapped a photo, and sent that to her friend.
After the funeral, as she was exiting the building, she walked back to the bowl to get a few more for her friend. When she looked closer, there was a double!
The precious response to this photo of the double was, “I am always touched when a double appears.”
It seemed a perfect assurance that this friend, too, would be faithfully watching over his wife….
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Molly and OJ’s
He went out with friends for the first time in over a year — not since his wife had been diagnosed with brain cancer.
Molly and OJ’s had about 40 moon-shaped lights ceiling lights.
As they began talking and laughing about old times, the light directly above him at their table started flashing!
Every time he started laughing, that light started blinking!
They all said, “There’s our Eli!”❤️❤️❤️
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Door Prize!
His wife had just passed on June 28. Friends were telling him the importance of doing those things they loved doing, even if it was difficult. So, he took the car to the Ridgetown Rotary Antique Car and Tractor Show, Sunday, July 12, 2026, at Watson Grove Park.
When the winning number for the door prize was called, his was just two digits off. They were all joking that she was trying to help him win but she missed the mark by just a bit!
The number was announced again. After a third time when no one came forth to claim the prize, it was announced another ticket would be drawn.
He won!
He got a battery booster, and a $75 dollar certificate toward new tires.
If his ticket number had been called the first time they might have missed it. The most valuable “prize” he won was blessed assurance she really was still helping him….
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“Lefty”
His daughter let him know of the passing of an out-of-state friend. He was scheduled to be visiting his daughter and family the following week. He could be there to attend the funeral. Sitting down at the dining table to eat his breakfast he began reading the obituary, and casually said aloud, “Alexa, shuffle songs by Merle Haggard.”
He had not really been noticing what was playing. But the line, “Lefty, he can’t sing the blues all night long like he use to,” from the song Lefty and Poncho certainly caught his attention. He knew it was a God-incidence.
Although he had never known their friend’s formal name, the obituary read:
John Alvin “Lefty” Barnett!
A wave doesn’t just roll into the shore. It also rolls back out to sea. If it didn’t roll back out to sea, it couldn’t roll into the shore. And that is the human existence. If we didn’t come into these bodies, we wouldn’t leave these bodies. And if we didn’t leave these bodies, we wouldn’t come into these bodies. That is the nature of the eternal existence. ~ Debra Basham 7-10-2026
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4th of July Call for Help
They were camping for the 4th of July weekend. While riding their new electric bikes to the evening’s bonfire, he thought he heard a male voice. Stopping to listen closely, he realized it was someone calling out for help.Following the calls, he located an older man by an overturned golf cart. The cart had flipped over pinning the man’s wife underneath! Quickly calling 911, what seemed a supernatural source of energy allowed him to lift the golf cart off of her.
“Do not move her,” he was instructed. Taking charge, he directed campers who had come to see what the commotion was to leave the area. He stayed with the couple, supporting them until the medical team arrived and could safely transport her. He was very thankful for the news that although the woman’s pelvis was broken, she was expected to recover fully.
Hearing details of her grandson’s unexpected 4th of July encounter, his grandmother told him, “There are angels in this world. You were an angel to this couple when you answered the call for help.”
In many respects, this experience aligns perfectly with accounts in the gospels. Jesus did not operate like a modern crisis responder traveling the globe on a schedule; rather, His ministry was deeply relational and situational. He primarily ministered to the people He physically encountered as He walked through towns, taught on hillsides, or sat at meals.