The Hand of God.

Before I get into commentary concerning a few other matters of concern to the country, I wanted to share a personal anecdote from this past summer, when I was unfortunately admitted to the hospital due to a life-threatening medical emergency for two weeks.

I say "unfortunately," but there is some good that came out of this.
I get to share a miraculous intervention in my life with the public at large.

I was taking a relatively decent dose of Lithium at that time, I believe it was June.
I was not drinking enough water and staying as hydrated as I should have been.
Also, it was, you know, just plain old hot.

As a result, for a few days leading up to the ambulance ride, my Lithium levels had begun to spike without me knowing it. I had started to become weak. I was vomiting, and couldn't hold food down. Not even fruit.

In that same time, I had also began to experience psychosis, including visual hallucinations (seeing that I was somewhere else while I was just in my bed, and seeing swirling colors on my ceiling), as well as delusions (thinking something totally different was going on in the apartment and neighborhood that I was in).

When I came out of these states, I would hardly remember what happened, or just chalk it up to a dream (It wasn't). Unfortunately, I was never able to connect all of the above dots to Lithium toxicity and act promptly to address the situation in time.

One day, the levels and dehydration caught up to me.

That afternoon, I was at the apartment with my grandmother.
There was a local power outage, and the box fan in my room was out of commission.
To make matters worse, my room, believe it or not, had no windows in it. It just had a door that opened up to the rest of the apartment, and windows toward the ceiling that opened up to the neighboring kitchen area.

All you need to know right now is that I was sprawled out on my mattress in scorching summer heat.

Meanwhile, on the stoop downstairs, my grandmother, whom I love dearly, was having one of her usual hours-long chats with her lady friends. Anyone who knows her knows that she loves to talk, and will talk ad nauseam with her friends and family for hours on end, be it on the phone, with company on the couch, or, as was the case this time, with friends on the front stoop in the summertime. One might jokingly say that it might take an act of God to get her to give herself a rest, as she just really, really loves to talk.

As stated above, she was on the porch, in the middle of one of her conversations with her friends, while she heard a small, childlike voice calling to her, "Grandma, grandma!"

She asked her friends, "Did y'all hear that?"

The replied, "No, Amanda. We didn't hear anything..."

The conversation continues for another few minutes, and the voice intrudes again.
Again, only my grandmother hearing it.

"Are y'all sure you didn't hear that?

"Yeah, Amanda! We don't know what you're talking about!"

The conversation continued one last time, with the voice intruding once more.
Again, my grandmother being the only one able to hear it.

She says, "Hold on for just one minute. I'm going upstairs."

(There were no other grandparents with grandchildren around within earshot at the tiny, quiet end of the block.)

Lo and behold, my grandmother finds me unconscious, unresponsive, sprawled out on my bed in the heat, heartbeat and and breathing totally out of control. My shirt was soaked in sweat, and my eyes bulging like a cartoon character.

The paramedics arrived, stabilized me, and quickly had me admitted to the hospital.
As the Lithium levels dropped in my system, I continued to experience hallucinations for a few days, until I was Lithium-free.

I had a few complications from the incident, such as my own body attacking my right calf (which rehabbed without help a week to two later), and another complication too messed up to mention here.

All things considered, I believe the following points to be fact:

1) My grandmother heard and listened to the voice of the Lord.

2) If not, she would have stayed outside for an indefinite period of time, enjoying the late afternoon/evening swapping stories with her friends on the stoop.

3) Point blank: Had she not listened,  judging by the condition that they found me in, I wasn't going to last much longer, and I would be dead right now.

I thank God each and every day.