Nobody can make it out here alone

Dear ones, do you know how much we have relied on you? Your emails, cards, phone calls, flowers, prayers, love. Your willingness to travel this road with us, to be our companions, our community. It is not easy to sit with another person's pain and grief. And yet, here you are, holding us in your kindness.

In about half an hour, I will be leaving the hospital. I am feeling confident, even excited about this change. Yesterday my Occupational Therapist took me for a ride in a car for the first time since the accident to see how I would cope with that experience, and I found that I was not particularly afraid. As comforting as the hospital setting is, leaving here will allow me and Michael more freedom - to sleep in if we want, to walk outside without needing to get permission, to have more time alone together.

Today is sunny and beautiful, and I am looking forward to feeling the warm, fresh air on my skin. Almost every day since Sage was born, when he woke up, I said to him, "Good morning, Sunshine. It's a beautiful day." I said this even when it was gray and rainy, because I wanted to teach him to see beauty in its many forms, not just the obvious ones. I will try to continue that practice, seeing the beauty in each day.

The following poem, I dedicate to our community of friends and family, the hospital staff, and all those who offer us the gift of connection and care.


Alone
by Maya Angelou


Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.