If you can believe it, more than me, my sweetheart was always the avid conversationalist, with great fervor in giving his best motivational pitch to someone needing counsel or encouragement. Eventually, in dealing with the pain from his illness, he rarely offered his opinion on any matter. Most of the time, he was just “at peace”. Some of the things he said during those days, to some, would seem insignificant, but oh so precious to me. He looked at a large picture of our granddaughter on the wall, just at the foot of his bed, and said, “I love lying here and looking at Alexia. She is so precious!” Or, “I love that smell” (the one that came through our bedroom window when our neighbor fired up her chiminea with pinion wood in it). Or, “Have you heard from the kids today?” Or the day when our daughter, Staci, his nurse and I were in the room with him, and he said, “I love you so much my precious darling”. I said, “Who are you talking to, Staci or me?” He said, “Both of you”! His nurse said, “He’s still got it!” Nothing earth shaking or world changing, but I realized those were the things that he valued so much -- seeing, smelling, appreciating the little things in life.
He opened his eyes, without giving a second thought and with convincing authority said, “YOU TALK TOO MUCH!!” LOL! Once again, I heard God’s voice, in his voice, saying, “Martha, Martha, you are busy about with too many things.” I got the message loud and clear from Ron AND Father God. Yes, I, too, must get into that place of being “at peace” even though there is so much to be done. It was during that season that I started being a better listener than a talker. I'm still learning to do that today. Oh, the lessons we learn from listening more and speaking less.
