Juneteenth, to provide one more reminder, celebrates the day that the union army entered  Texas to announce the end of legal slavery in the United states. For some reason I always associate those days with the celebratory  music such Scott Joplin/s , such as the Maple Leaf Rag. And, of course I still mourn the recent loss of my old friend Joplin Julie

piano pieces, such as the always associate it with the famous Ragtime pianist  Scott Jopline, who

Even more I associate it with Joplin’s welll-known opera Treemonisha.   Click here to hear the llast few minutes if this opera.

I am still here, which is a miracle considering where I was just several weeks ago, after the brain bleed, much like a massive stroke, punched me into the weirdest half-blind and kaleidoscopic state  that I would ever imagine Meanwhile, massive  prayer from so many friends across the world supported me my healing, and now the initial wound has in large part disappeared. It’s a miracle.

On the other hand, I’m not quite out of the woods yet. On Wednesday I will be getting  a new new MRI scan that will reveal how much more healing may still be left to go.

Meanwhile my home health carer Salai continues to help me on a daily basis with everything, from reading to understanding smart phones pages  and other homey chores, she is reminding me how to pray and how to play. I’m learning to place Jesus in the center of my life in ways that I haven’t practiced in  many years.

I’ve also discovered what a marvelous storyteller and pastor she is. I’ve been truly blessed by her friendship. Meanwhile I’m understanding the tremendous weight of my past, as wonderful as it is,  as a drag on whatever tasks God may give to me in the future. So right now, I’m in a process of deciding what to keep and what to move on from, as well as how to reconstruct my shattered body. .

Again, just to type out these few thoughts is, for the present, still  sticky and difficult. This is why my written communication has been so incomplete.

Thus, many people did not receive my previous update which details the tremendous and sudden change in my life. It is still posted on my blog and available t read here.

One last thing, just because it’s interesting to me.  Kaiser keeps sending me various health care workers to work on me. Last week they sent a physical therapist whom, from his body language, immediately struck my body as threatening. He measured my blood pressure as too high to work with. Normally my blood pressure is135.  This time is was 185, fifty points higher. It took two days for it to come back down to normal. I was surprised at how emotional states can physically manifest themselves so clearly