Straight Paths - Like An Oasis in a Desert

Like An Oasis in a Desert

Loren Hardin

For The Ashland Beacon

      This is part two of a two-part series about Thomas, who was fifty-four when he enrolled in hospice services with end-stage non-alcoholic cirrhosis. Thomas had been in and out of long-term care and rehab facilities over the previous two to three years. During my initial social work visit Thomas lamented, “It’s difficult knowing that I will probably never leave this place.” When I commented on the stacks of books beside Thomas’ bed, he explained, “I love reading. Reading enables me to escape; it carries my mind to places other than here.” 

     Thomas was born in Georgia but grew up in Ohio. After earning a GED, Thomas worked numerous jobs; MacDonalds, Speedway, cabinet manufacturing factories and a pizza roll plant, until he became occupationally disabled at age twenty-three. Thomas explained, “My cirrhosis was caused by the medications I’ve been on for Crohn’s disease. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when I was nine, and it was full blown by the time I was ten or eleven. It was difficult for me to have a normal childhood. I couldn’t participate in extracurricular activities like the other kids. I don’t know why but I was bullied ever since kindergarten. The other kids made me feel like I didn’t deserve the oxygen I breathed, and I became depressed and suicidal.” Then Thomas raised his right forearm and pointed to the scars from cutting his wrist and declared, “That’s something a nine-year-old should never have.” 

    But there was a ninth-grade creative writing teacher who was like an oasis in Thomas’ desert. Thomas wasn’t with her for long, and she didn’t take Thomas on as a personal project, but she provided Thomas the nourishment and refreshment he needed to continue his journey. Thomas recounted, “My favorite subject in school was creative writing. Our teacher, Ms. Eubanks, assigned us to write a paper on “The life of a desk”; to write it as if we were the desk and to describe what our typical day would be like. When Ms. Eubanks read my paper, she told me that it was excellent and posted it on the classroom wall and told the other students that it was an example of excellent creative writing. Then she told me that I should enter it in a creative writing competition at a local arts fair. I didn’t think it was that good and I didn’t see myself as that good of a writer. But to my surprise, it won second place. I loved Ms. Eubanks; she was my favorite teacher.” 

     It’s easy to see why Thomas’ favorite subject was creative writing and why Ms. Eubanks was his favorite teacher. Ms. Eubanks inspired Thomas to think in ways he’d never thought before and to see himself in ways he’d never seen before. Pastor and author, C. J. MaHaney, wrote about cultivating the habit of looking for and “Identifying the evidence of God’s grace” in the lives of those we love and care for. He explains, “This involves actively looking for ways that God is working in the lives of others…We motivate others when we perceive where and how He (God) is at work in their lives and humbly let them know. They need to know, because so often they are unaware.” (“Humility”, by C.J. MaHaney). 

    On a personal note, during my senior year of high school I was sitting across the table from my friend, Bill, in study hall when he informed me, “Dad said he will pay for you to attend the speedreading course I’m going to take in preparation for college.” I asked Bill why and explained that I wasn’t even planning on going to college. Bill replied, “But Dad said he sees something in you; he sees you going to college.” College hadn’t entered my mind, not until Bill’s dad, Mr. Newberry, inspired me to think in ways I’d never thought before and to see myself in ways I’d never seen before. I enrolled at Ohio University in that Fall. Years later, and shortly before Mr. Newberry departed this world for his heavenly home, I had the privilege and honor to visit Mr. Newberry in the hospital and thank him for the difference he made in my life. 

     “Every single encounter, no matter how brief, is a one-of-a-kind, once-in-a-lifetime, opportunity to manifest His name to those He gives us,” (Anonymous). We never know when we may be presented with the opportunity to be an oasis in the middle of some weary traveler’s desert. So, let’s be on the lookout. 

      “Death and life are in the power of the tongue,” (Proverbs 18:21). 

     Loren Hardin was a social worker with Southern Ohio Medical Center Hospice for twenty-nine years. He can be contacted at 740.357.6091 or lorenhardin53@gmail.com. You can purchase a copy of Loren’s book, “Straight Paths: Insights for living from those who have finished the course”, through Amazon.