The New Normal (Start Page)

I received a call today that I have been listed for a heart transplant.

The biggest of big deals - at any time now, the phone could ring and within a day the heart that I was born with will no longer beat inside my chest.  Instead the heart that was beating in another chest will take its place.

It is impossible to begin this journey without thanking a family who is in great pain for their choice to pass life along to others that they do not know. Through a tragic event that ended the life of their loved one others will have life or be able to enjoy life again.  Thank you and may my prayers for you ease your pain.  I promise to be worthy of your gift and to care for it.

The journey to this news began many years ago but only in the last year has heart failure really hit home.  My doctors have and are managing me expertly so many of you never realized how sick my heart is - I look and feel pretty darn normal.

Normal. That's a word.

How many "normals" have you had? Earliest memories as a toddler, pre-schooler? On to school, then high school, college, career, marriage, family, relocations, …, deaths, births, all require or make changes in our lives and we make a "new normal" for each.

Like passing through a gate to the lands beyond, we leave something behind a enter a new country where we set out to create a new normal pattern of life and activity.

I can't say what is in this new land that I will enter beyond this gate - I have hopes but will trust that God will continue with me as he has up till now and that good things will be ahead.

Vickie and I have spoken with others who have made this journey, our doctors and nurses and we read Dick Cheney and Johathan Reiner's book "Heart, An American Odyssey".  These gave us more confidence but we were pretty scared at the prospect.  Over time, through prayer and the prayers of others, we have been covered with peace.

Now, I'm certain that when that phone call comes we will be anxious in the moment but with His help, your help and your prayers we will be fine.