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Some blessings don’t show up as blessing initially do they?  Some things seem more like a curse than a blessing.  Such was the four months I spent trying to find out why I felt so bad.  It wasn’t until the end of the four months that my heart rate plummeted to 29 and they realized I would either die or need a pace maker.  Since I was pretty sure the good Lord wasn’t getting my room ready in heaven, I agreed to get a pacemaker.

The change in me was almost instantaneous!  Of course the incision site had to heal which meant I couldn’t lift my arm higher than my heart for six weeks.  I was okay with that but the biggest worry was how was I going to blow dry my hair?  The doctor suggested I get my bald headed husband to blow dry my hair.  Now he hasn’t combed let alone blow dried anything with hair on it in seven years.  And my daughter, while has a heart of gold, is way too busy with her family, job, and business to come blow dry my hair every other day.  Nor was I comfortable letting it go “Au natural” or paying for a hair salon. My hair doesn’t dry pretty on its own leaning towards, kinky, frizzy, helter-skelter.  Just catch me when I first wake up – I look like a Phyllis Diller wannabe.

When I discussed it with my hair stylist she taught me how to use a diffuser and style my hair upside down.  And it worked!  With a bit of practice and some different styling product my hair has never been easier and never looked so good.  The added benefit is that it is much healthier without me frying, tugging and pulling on it.

The implantation of the pace maker helped me realize that God made each of us unique.  Yet, more often than not, we don’t like what stares back at us in the mirror.  For me, it was the never ending fight to tame my curly, frizzy hair.  Growing up in the 70’s, the look was long, straight hair and parted in the middle.  I used to use 2 large empty orange juice cans to roll my hair on the top which would give it some height.  Then I would wrap the sides around the can and sleep with it like that.  A miserable night’s sleep was insured and the style only lasted a few minutes before the Florida humidity savagely attack it rendering me as a brunette version of the young girl in the 1982 movie Annie but with more frizz than curls.

But now without choice I stopped fighting the curls and with the help of a diffuser created soft curls.

My point is that we often don’t see the blessings amidst the stressings that occur in our lives. It may seem like a small and insignificant blessing but it has made my life so much easier and I am at an age when I am looking for easy.  Easy is good.  Easy is a big thing these days.

Sometimes difficulties help us think about God’s simple gifts.  During my four months I spent most of that time, having tests or lying on the patio’s two seater love seat watching Liesl chase squirrels and lizards and listening to the music of the birds.  The blessing that our home sits against a nature preserve has been another blessing to appreciate.  And now with having a pacemaker I find that my curly hair was actually a gift to appreciate and not change.

God doesn’t make mistakes.  He makes us how we are intended to be.  Why do we spend so much time fighting Him that we miss the blessings he actually bestows upon us?  Small or large – a gift nonetheless.  It took me 67 years to accept who God created me to be.  Yeah, I am a slow learner.  But I got this now.  And I am thoroughly enjoying this little blessing.  If it hadn’t been for needing a pacemaker which limited my movements I would still be trying to fry my hair and fight my natural self.

Thank you for reading my post.  If you have found it encouraging please consider liking, commenting or sharing it.  Feel free to even re-blog – may these words take flight!

I have additional insights I’d love to share with you found in the pages of my debut book: Surviving Medical Mayhem – Laughing When It Hurts.  To order a copy or learn more go to my website at www.lorettaschoen.com

Blessings for Health & Wellness.