During my initial four day visit to the Proton Therapy Institute, I received several instructions to prepare me for these treatments. These were related to diet, lab work, restricted medications and water. Diet changes were easy—give up gas-forming foods—and the lab work was routine. However, drinking 10-12 cups of water a day was a challenge. My beloved hot tea does not count. Those of you who know me well will be surprised that I only drink one cup of tea each day now. I am drinking water!
Before every treatment I have to drink three cups of water 45 minutes before the treatment. This is not a suggestion; it is demanded for each treatment because this water fills my bladder to move it out of the path of the radiation. In this case water serves a specific purpose that we would not think of in our list of things to do with water.
In our culture we generally don’t even think about water, much less any different function that it may have. The fact is that we take water for granted. We open the tap and water flows abundantly. Our drinking water is pure. We waste water, and we live like our source of water will never end.
In West Africa where we worked for years water was the most precious commodity, and it was the dream of every family to have clean drinking water. I have a very clear image of seeing people in Burkina Faso praising God when the first water was drawn out of a new well. They are simple people living in a very simple world, but they fully understand that water is life.
Give thanks for the things that we take for granted.
1 comment:
Thanks Dad! I'm really enjoying your posts on this. I was able to go down to the south in the villages the day that I read this post to help with medical clinics for the Bedouin. My biggest take away was how very much we have and how very much we take for granted. Seeing 8-10 year old kids whose hands were as weathered as 70 year old men, women probably my age who looked at least 60 because of the roughness of our life. May I be so much more grateful for things like the ability to turn on water from the tap!!
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