Day 19 - First Aid For the Heart

We had our First Aid exam tonight. I got to the school a few minutes early, visited with some classmates, and about 10 minutes before going to take the exam, I checked crackbook...I mean facebook...on my phone. When I read a dear friend's status, it literally took my breath away. He shared that his beloved wife of many years had lost her battle to cancer about 10 minutes prior. It was not unexpected, but yet at the same time, when you hear that someone you have worshiped and served in church with for the last 11 years goes to their reward, and you realize you're left here in this imperfect world, it takes your breath away. At least it did with me.
But I didn't have time to think it about right then. I had a final exam in a few short minutes.
We had a few minutes to review before the exam, but I figured that if I didn't know it by then, I wasn't going to learn it in the next five minutes.
I started the exam and was done within a half hour, I'd say.
While waiting for everybody to finish, my classmates and I sat in the student break room and chatted. They made me smile and laugh and forget about things for a few minutes.
We reconvened in the classroom, discussed the exam, got our test scores (94%, thank you very much) and then took a break. After returning from the break, we moved to our bodywork room where we studied or practiced bodywork techniques for tomorrow night's exam. As always, the experience took away the stress of the day and allowed us to focus on right there, at that moment. A little First Aid for the heart.
Then, it was time to go home. A long drive of 40 minutes with me, the radio, and my thoughts to keep me company. The radio station I turned to played one of my favorite songs, Mountain of God, by Third Day, a song about how we must go through the valley to be able to stand upon the Mountain of God. I thought about my friend, Maralynn, with her welcoming party in heaven. A little later, the song "He Reigns" by the Newsboys came on, and I had a few tears - with the cruise control set at 70 mph. After that song, Jeremy Camp's song, "Give Me Jesus" came on, and I thought about when Jeremy Camp came on the music scene, he had just lost his wife to cancer.
I don't generally talk about my faith on this blog, because that's not the purpose of this blog. It's about the whole experience of taking the program to become a massage therapist. Tonight, I can't help but share - and it's been part of my experience at the school. My friend is in heaven without pain and no more tears. Isn't that where you would want to be?