Yesterday the official meal train ended, with a pizza, whose delicious panoply of ingredients seemed to salute, indirectly, all the delicious meals that had come before. There remains one anticipated ceremonial meal yet to be received and gratefully disappeared into the Algers, but for all intents and purposes, we are done. And we just want to take a minute to give our thanks for these many acts of caring and kindness. All this recuperating and regenerating Tanja is doing takes a lot of energy, from her obviously, but also somehow from me and Wren, even though we are largely spectators to the healing.

There have been so many days when, as evening rolls around, the realization that food is on the way has brought us a second wind.

And the fact that we now feel capable of taking on our own KP duties is due to the running start the meal train gave us.

Of course, it is just super satisfying to receive these kindnesses–and all the other similar kindnesses–that our friends and family have seen fit to deliver. They are good, in and of themselves; and they are an opportunity to look at this friend or that and reflect on the things we love about them–something we maybe don’t do as often as we should in easy times.

Wren once read this sci-fi fantasy book wherein the young hero, as he begins to realize the extent of his powers, discovers that he can draw energy from other living beings in his vicinity. He first learns this, sadly, when in the course of practicing some intense spell-casting he inadvertently kills all the earthworms, bugs and plants in a 30 foot radius by sucking them dry of energy.

Then he sets out to learn how to control this, so that he can pull power from the earth but leave the worms enough to bounce back with.

That’s our goal. Get the meals, get the support, get all the love, but not kill anyone, metaphorically.

And we do not mean to limit this to meals–it’s just the end of the train that has us thinking about food. There have been heartfelt cards, the loveliest of flowers, restorative visits, schlepping of teenager, much chocolate, an obscene amount of girl scout cookies, texts, phone calls, a hundred different kinds of support–all just different forms of kindness and love. I think we’ve said thank you. I hope we have. We feel very grateful.

Thank you.

There are 22 days in the Collar Countdown. Today was OT, PT and Acupuncture in the morning, followed by a quiet indoor afternoon. All is well.