Happy New Year everyone! May the year 2020 bring in more blessings and adventures. May the new decade be filled with abundance and love.
Christmas and New Year was a bit solemn for us because my brother-in-law had to be admitted to the hospital. What we suspected as just a spike in blood sugar and a slight stroke turned out to be a tumor in the brain which is blocking the fluids from draining and is growing near the brain stem. He had to undergo an operation immediately than risk a coma. Thankfully, we were able to borrow money for the operation. He was operated on the 26th to put a shant on his brain to drain the fluids and to lessen the building pressure. Another operation will be performed in a few days to remove the tumor which is benign and is just level one when tumors are concerned. Apparently, there are four levels or stages. At least, that's one thing we are thankful for and that we found it early, least he would just drop down into a coma while in the loo. That's how critical the situation would have been. We continue to pray that the next operation would be as smooth and there would be no complications and that he would make a faster full recovery. So, for those who will be reading this, please help pray for my brother-in-law. Thank you in advance.
When I chose this story as the first story to be reviewed for 2020, I did not have any conscious reason except that this should have been reviewed last year. After telling you about what our Christmas and New Year's celebration were like, I realized that this book has a lot of relevance to our experience mostly because the story is about a doctor. So, my telling you about my brother-in-law's case is actually a good introduction to this story or about the main character - Dr. Hayden Luschcombe.
Hayden is a very skilled pediatrician. He can easily spot things that most doctors would miss, thus is a very valuable asset to the hospital he works for. But after a very painful betrayal of his wife, he lost his cool while attending to a burned child at the emergency room and had an altercation with the child's father. He was suspended and might lose his license to practice. It was like Hayden's whole world came crushing down on him. His marriage is in shambles after he caught his wife cheating and now his career is lost as well. Worst, he had nowhere to go. No friends to find solace or comfort. His last and only resort was to go back to the one and only other place he knew - Walhalla. His hometown.
I had to reread the earlier parts of this story that led to Hayden's misfortunes. I had to make sure I had it right. What was imprinted in my consciousness was the part where Hayden spent in Walhalla after he lucked out, which is probably most of the story and the most amazing part. It turned out, life has a way of working out and for Hayden, it was Walhalla. Walhalla, along with its very kind-hearted people, had helped Hayden get back on his feet and rediscover his first love - woodworking. Aside from being a very good doctor, Hayden is a very skilled wood worker. It was in Walhalla where he found the strength and the inspiration to get his hands working again and create wooden masterpieces. It was also the place where he comes to terms with his past and his present and eventually, consider plans for his future.
Aside from Hayden, the two other inspiring characters in this story are the mother and daughter pair - Isabelle and Genevieve Sampi. Isabelle is a very talented baker. She could bake delicious and mouth-watering goodies. While reading this book, I could imagine the delicious aroma of bread baking and I can't help but miss the relaxing and uplifting mood baking brings to me. It's a very good form of stress relief which I have missed badly. I haven't done a lot of baking lately. But last New Year's eve, I got to relive the high of baking again because my sister asked me to make a banana cake when she saw that we had too many bananas that had gone too ripe. They were leftover from the hospital given by friends who visited.
One very memorable scene in this story is how Hayden and Genevieve first met. It was a very hilarious one. The pint sized Genevieve packed a very mean kick and Hayden's unfortunate groin could attest to that. Also, Genevieve is deaf. She was so surprised that the doc is really good at sign language. These three souls (Isabelle, her daughter and the doc) turned out to find solace in each other and fix whatever is broken within themselves. As fate would have it, Walhalla is definitely the "Valley of the Gods" as it is called because these three people have found the healing they needed to start life over.
This is a very touching story which tugged at my heart in so many different ways. I emphatized with Hayden. With him losing it and going ballistic with the parent was to me a very classic human reaction. I can understand his frustration and if I were in his place, I would have done the same thing. I would have creamed that abusive father till he admits to what he did to his own child. But then, society and values require us to be the bigger man, damn it! To be rational in a very frustrating situation. What the heck, right? But then, with the doc ending up in Walhalla, a place where he remembered he was loved, was a way for him to find hope once again.
Love, hope and that dreams do come through if you work hard enough, are the main themes of this story. In spite of the very unlucky start of Hayden, with his marriage and career ending, he found comfort and hope in the welcoming and very kind arms of Walhalla. He then resolved to fix his messes, starting with his parents' cottage. I guess, for some of us, whose issues aren't as tangible or the damage can't be literally fixed or put back together, we have to start the healing with the things that we can manually do something about. With Hayden, it was the cottage, then his dad's last wood work and then when he felt better enough about himself, he started fixing his life. The story tells us to take one thing at a time because to take on everything at once is too overwhelming. Instead of making things better, we may end up doing more damage. No one came back from the ashes in one go. Even the phoenix requires time to build strength and start the embers before rising to its rebirth. One step at a time because healing is gradual. It doesn't take overnight. It's a slow process. For others, much slower, depending on the person's drive to make things better and how much the emotional, physical and mental damage is. And it doesn't hurt also to have people who believe in you. That no matter how much you messed up, they believe that you can pull through because they've seen you when you were at your best. They have faith that you are a lot bigger than your messes. You can be better. You can do a lot better.
I give this book 5/5 doctor's bag. It's a very good story of starting over and doing what we truly love. And it couldn't be just one thing, but we could be passionate about many things. Just like Hayden, he doesn't have to choose between being a wood craftsman and a doctor, he could be both. He could do well with a chisel and a stethoscope. He's skilled at those two things. He could heal people with compassion and create works of art with wood with a passion. He could be an artisan doctor. He only has to be reminded of the joy that woodworking brings to him and from there he could feel better. To learn to forgive himself and start over. With that in mind, I hope that whatever our misses in 2019, we leave it there. We start over this year just like Doc Hayden, Isabelle and Genevieve and make a better life than the one we had the previous year or the years before that. To just aim to be better. Cheers to new beginnings and to living life with a passion and living our passions. If you have not found your passion or anything that makes you feel so alive, then find it!
What we were as children doesn't necessarily translate to the people we are now.
- Dean Mayes, The Artisan Heart -
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