Reflections

This day each year is special day for me. No, I am not referring to Halloween - a day that really means nothing to me. It was on this day back in 2005 that a friend/co-worker in the office I was in suffered a cardiac arrest. I heard the dull thump as he hit the wall and slid down the radiator grill to the floor. Without seeing what had happened, I had a bad feeling and called out “Doug” - no response. “Doug” and still no response. I ran the few steps down to his desk and found him pulseless on the floor next to the wall. Fast-forward a few minutes and Doug was responding as he was moved out of his cubicle and up the stairs on a cot to an ambulance. (Doug recovered a pulse after I delivered a single shock to restart his heart using an AED I had purchased weeks earlier with a grant.)

If you have never witnessed a cardiac arrest or participated in the response, you will have to trust me that it is rather unnerving. For the rest of the day I struggled to concentrate - reliving the morning moments over and over and over. At the same time I wondered how Doug was doing after learning he had survived the trip to the ER. I won’t deny, it was an unusual day.

Doug survived his sudden cardiac arrest, returned to work, retired, traveled, but eventually became ill and was taken from us too early.

Fast forward to today. October 31, 2022 was more than a day thinking about using an AED and saving a life a number of years ago. Today I reflected not only on that day, but also on a young friend who is nearing her transition to eternal life. Cancer is taking another good person - a wife, a mother, a co-worker, a friend. My thoughts are with her, but do no good. Only a miracle will stop this, but I am not sure that is the proper thing to wish for. Those of us with faith know the next chapter will be so much better - no more pain, no more illness. It does not seem fair, but nowhere were we promised a “fair” life free of pain and struggle. Nonetheless, I don’t like it.

Tonight, knowing my paddling season is going to slow dramatically due to short days and cold weather, I put my canoe on the water and went paddling. Like so many other evening paddles, I spent quite a bit of time shooting pictures of paddling a canoe and the sunset. None of the images really moved me, but I was enjoying my time on the water. Eventually, after reaching the main channel of the Wapsipinicon River where the water was hardly moving due to low levels, I stopped paddling and just drifted - virtually standing still. It was there, sitting sideways in the river as the current slowly moved me, that I noticed the tree silhouette patterns and then their reflections on the surface of the water. Then it dawned on me…”Reflections…” The day had been one of memory reflections and was ending with a visual reflection. All I needed to do was remain still, capture the moment, and share the image with my thoughts put to words.

This is it… “Reflections” - an image that may mean nothing to others, but is representative of October 31, 2022 for me.