One of my favorite places to go is a tiny tidal isle off the northeast
coast of England that is identified as Holy Island Lindisfarne. Not
only is it rich in Christian heritage going back to the 5th and 6th cen-
turies, and therefore a holy place of pilgrimage for Christians of Eng-
land, it is also an amazing wildlife refuge and a place of rugged natural
beauty. Unfortunately the result of all this is that it is overrun by tour-
ists for much of the year.
Holy Island, being a tidal island, is cut off from the mainland twice in
a twentyfour hour period. It is inaccessible for significant lengths of
time, depending on the tide. Knowing this fact, the wise inhabitants of
the island have restricted guest accommodation. Therefore most visi-
tors to the island have to leave while the causeway is still safe for pas-
sage. One of the great thrills of my life has been to have lodging on the
island and to stand on a bluff watching the stream of vehicles flooding
across the causeway before it is itself inundated by the rising tide.
At the time of lowest tide, I like to go look out over the bay. I see des-
olate mud flats and occasional basins of standing water left by the pre-
vious outgoing tide. It is just over three miles to the mainland side of
the tidal basin. A permanent channel of moving water hugs the oppo-
site coast. But the basin quickly fills up with onrushing tidal water
from the North Sea. The area off in the distance begins to fill with the
tide, and then the waters start filling the areas between Holy Island
and the main channel way over on the other side. Gradually, but all
so unrelentingly, the sea water advances upon the beaches of the
island. Soon the middle distance of mud flats is covered by water,
and then the portion of the basin closest to me is covered with a shal-
low level of water. When I go down on the beach I am surprised by
how quickly the approaching water creeps unrelentingly to where I
stand.
At times I have wondered if the water is eying me and trying not to
scare me away so that it can quickly grab me and pull me into the on-
rushing water and carry me out to sea. I marvel at the steady prog-
ress of rivulets that inch their way forward, steady and sure in their
advance. I am forced to retreat to higher and higher ground. How
quickly once-dry rocks that had served as benchmarks of the tide's
advance are covered with water and the tide has reached it's high wa-
ter mark. I am struck by how slow, yet unrelenting and steady is the
tide's advance. I just go with the flow of it.
This scenario best describes how I feel at this point in my recovery.
I don't recall having experienced anything like desolate mud flats
during my time in the hospital, but I experienced something like
the incoming tidal surge of Holy Island. My recovery is like the in-
coming high tide: it seems slow at times, but it is definitely unrelent-
ing and steady. I have marveled at the steady and relentless ad-
vance of the recovery of my body, mind, and spirit.
I feel great physically, and I am becoming increasingly confident in
my ability to walk anywhere in town. Recently I tackled two major
challenges in my recovery: I walked the twenty minutes from home
to the office rather than taking the bus, and I walked up a major
steep portion on the way to church that had intimidated me before.
I am naturally waking up after 7-8 hours of sleep at night, but I
still have enjoyment in an afternoon nap. My mental ability is be-
coming more and more clear. I am savouring the word-smithing
and story-telling of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy and I am starting to
write again. I still am not ready to do academic work yet. I am en-
joying this time, but I try not to flaunt my opportunities for such
pleasures in front of my academic colleagues who do not have such
luxury of time. They are hard pressed by scholarly books to read,
chapters to write, and papers to present. I am experiencing a de-
sire to be back doing that sometime in the future, but I hope I can
at least finish Tolkien's trilogy first.
I've also resumed attending Morning and Evening Prayer, as well as
picking up on my own personal discipline of prayer and Scripture
reading. These activities nurture me and help shape my day. My ap-
petite is still not what I had hoped it would be. I still find it hard to
make it through even small portions of food. Although my appetite
has picked up a little this past week, it remains a concern to me.
Meanwhile I am thankful for the positive progress of my recovery.
My body continues to be strengthened, my mind is becoming clear-
er, and my spirits are increasingly lifted; many times I sense this day
by day. I continue to ask for your thoughts and prayers as I continue
in my recovery. Thankyou for the emails and letters.
Blessings, Jeff T.
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