According to the Buddha, my teacher, life is only available in the here and now. The past is already gone, and the future is yet to come. There is only one moment for me to live - the present moment. So the first thing I do is to go back to the present moment. By doing so, I touch life deeply. My in-breath is life, my out-breath is life. Each step I take is life...
Many of us think that happiness is not possible in the present moment. Most of us believe that there are a few more conditions that need to be met before we can be happy. This is why we are sucked into the future and are not capable of being present in the here and now. This is why we step over many of the wonders of life. If we keep running away into the future, we cannot be in touch with the many wonders of life -- we cannot be in the present moment where there is healing, transformation, and joy.
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
They took out his chest tubes this morning. Yay! They also took out the tube in his mouth (to help relieve the pressure in his stomach) and put in an NG tube (feeding tube) in his nose. They've even started him on breastmilk. Whoo hoo!
They also stopped the paralytic last night - he started moving around a little bit, but he was still heavily sedated. His nurse stopped the constant morphine this morning and only gives him a dose when he's showing signs of pain. Otherwise, he wiggles his toes and occasionally opens his eyes and looks around, but for the most part, he's still sleeping.
Moving him off the ventilator is on the agenda for tomorrow morning - though they keep telling us that it's all on his schedule - which is fine with us! Once he's off the ventilator, I can start trying to breastfeed him - which means we get to hold him again.
Joy in the little things.