Mae was excited to return home to all the poster boards and balloons and flowers and excitement around her arrival on Friday but was more excited to see her cousin Ceci Bradley and her boyfriend Weston Bush yesterday during a late afternoon visit.  Ceci is my oldest niece and a UGA grad and is working in acute care therapy in Spartanburg while Weston is in the early stages of medical school.  Ceci and Mae have a special relationship and both Weston and Ceci were keenly interested in all the details of Mae’s procedure - not only because they care about Mae but also given their chosen careers in medicine/healthcare.  Ceci and Weston are intelligent, educated, hard working, optimistic, great young Americans and represent everything that’s right about the South and our country.  We need more young people like them - they remind me of many of the people at Egelston and Scottish Rite who’ve been caring and contributing to Mae’s comfort and recovery since June 28th.  And in the blink of an eye, it’s over and we’re home.  

So bear with me here now for a moment.  Many years ago, a long time client and good friend casually mentioned to me during a lunch meeting about a daily devotional titled Streams In The Desert.  Streams In The Desert was written in 1925 and was the compilation of thoughts and writings by Lettie Burd Cowman, the wife of Charles Cowman.  The Cowman’s were from Iowa and married in 1889 and then, starting in 1900, spent many years in ministry as a missionary couple in Asia.  Can you imagine what living in Asia would have been like as Americans at the dawning of the 20th century?   It had to have been totally nuts.  After distributing Bibles and literature and reaching over 60 million people in Japan/China with their Christian messaging, and with Mr. Cowman in declining health, they returned home in the early 1920’s.  Ms. Cowman cared for her husband daily and assembled a series of writings to sustain herself through his slow deterioration over several years  - these writings became Streams In The Desert. Her friends requested copies and so she printed a few and thought that was the end of it.  However, demand grew and by 2006, it had sold 6 million copies and was translated into 15 different languages - no telling how many copies have sold today and I haven’t researched it but we can assume A LOT more.  It’s arguably the most popular daily devotional ever written and on par with My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.  Anyway, her writings are just beautiful- very elegant prose with amazing spiritual depth.  If you’re ever looking for a spiritual boost or if you just want to read beautiful language that will activate your brain and heart, her compositions are gorgeous writing in its finest form - I highly recommend this text.  

Now, to my point- So for the last several years and after realizing the value in these writings, I would order a dozen or so of these at a time from Amazon, who would promptly deliver these to my front door, and I would hand them out one at a time to whoever I thought needed a copy - and there’s been no one who doesn’t appreciate this text.  I noticed on Thursday afternoon as I was prepping to leave for the hospital that I had 4 copies left from my last order that had been sitting on the counter in my closet for, I don’t know how long, but, too long.  It occurred to me that Scottish Rite would be the best home for these so I packed them with me but then was immediately challenged by what exactly to do with them?  I wasn’t worried about this per se but the hospital is a busy place and I did care about them landing in the “right place” and my thoughts ranged from maybe giving them to our friend Jada O’Neill (and burden her to distribute them but this assumed she would be working on Friday?), or maybe just hand them to whichever random nurse was looking after Mae at that time (but these nurses have their hands full constantly with other urgent matters), or should I just place them in the chapel with a note that invited usage?  Not sure - just give it time Harold.  

So Friday morning comes and I’m prepping for Mae’s departure and I still hadn’t settled on what to do with these devotionals and was leaning towards just leaving them in the chapel as the best idea when into Room #359 walks Simone Ferguson out of the blue.  Simone announces that she’s part of the Chaplaincy program at Scottish Rite and just wanted to check on us and see how we’re doing.  Ha!  Of course that’s why you’re here Simone.  As Matthew McConaughey explained in his book, this would be a “Green Light!”  I immediately welcomed Simone and promptly indicated that I had an assignment for her, explained what I had for her to do and that she should distribute accordingly to whoever needed a copy and that it was all at her discretion.  She was somewhat startled and caught slightly off guard as she wasn’t expecting to receive “orders” during this visit but immediately appreciated the gesture and the high quality of the devotional that was now in her hands to pass along to those in need.  It was a nice moment for both of us and I’m 100% confident these words of wisdom landed in the right hands.  A picture of her is attached here.  Godspeed Simone.   

In other Wyatt news, Harold IV enjoyed a weekend in Florence, Italy with friends and will be heading back to Austria today for school starting again tomorrow and Russell was off to take the ACT this morning.  

And a Georgia Bulldog is at the top of the leaderboard heading into the final round of the Open Championship at Hoylake.  Brian Harman has maintained his 5 shot lead after Friday and carries that cushion into today’s final round.  The weather is terrible there so far this morning but as everybody who’s played golf over there knows, it can and will change and probably several times over.  Brian has the game to win, hopefully it’s his time and the Claret Jug will be returning to Georgia -the greatest state in the country.

Thanks everyone.  I enjoy writing and it’s been therapeutic to compile these messages to help keep all of you great and caring people informed about Mae and her progress and it’s taken the burden off of Lisa from having to report on everything to everybody - so it’s worked well for both of us.  We really appreciate your prayers, thoughts, and well wishes.  Let’s all keep moving onward and upward however we can.

Best Wishes,

Harold

    

    

Streams in the Desert