Jun
6
Mary and the Dentist Chair
June 6, 2008 |
I went to the dentist yesterday to have some relatively major work done. I’ve been putting it off but finally decided I had to get it over with.
The dentist chair and I have a very long and acrimonius relationship. Due to my birth defects, my mouth is a structural mess. I have spent more time in the dentist chair in my forty-something years than A-Rod has spent in the batting cage.
It started when I was 8 and continued through college. When I was a pre-teen and teenager, I was at the dentist office practically once a month. I got a respite until my late twenties when I had to undergo another set of procedures. Now, I’m finding out that the stuff they did in the my early years is breaking down, so I’m going through yet another set.
So, I’m sitting in the dentist chair yesterday, prepared for the pain and suffering that I usually endure while I’m looking up at that blank white tile of yet another boring ceiling. But, slowly I started realizing that this wasn’t the dentist chair of old. I had ESPN to watch, an I-Pod to listen to, and very good (and I mean very good) Novacaine. I was in the office for about an hour-and-a-half and felt very little pain.
But there was something that did bother me. I realized that I just hate (and I mean hate) that chair. I hate the memories, I hate the pain, I hate the smells, I hate the sounds of the drill, I hate the boredom. I hate the problems I’ve incurred with my mouth, I hate the uncertainty of what’s going to be next, I hate the money I have to pay out.
Yesterday, I just hated being in that chair; I just didn’t want to be there and it took every fiber of my being to stay there.
And that’s when I called to Mary. I called to her and I felt her presence. I felt her stroking my hand, relaxing me, telling me to focus on the music, to focus on her. I know I wasn’t struggling with any actual physical pain at that moment in time; but I was struggling with emotional crap and thoughts of intense past pain, and that’s why I needed her and she was there.
With all of the crap I’ve gone through in my life (the surgeries, the orphan years), I’ve never really felt Mary’s presence in my life. But, I’m beginning to realize that she has always been there, watching over me, comforting me, caring for me. And yesterday was the first time that I actually felt her presence. And it made all the difference in the world.
She is there for each of us. We are her children. No matter what we are going through, all we have to do is ask and she will reveal her presence to us. I’m just sad that it’s taken so long for me to figure that out.
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First Friday Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Optional Memorial of St. Norbert, bishop (Germany, 1080-1134) - Archibishop of Magdeberg; founder of the Order of Premonstratensians; as a young cleric, led a worldly life and was totally transformed - when caught in a storm, lightening threw him from his horse and he heard a voice taking him to task for his lifestyle.
