I recently purchased a blood pressure machine at my cardiologist’s recommendation. No big deal. Easy enough for his Nurse Practitioner. I’ve seen her take my blood pressure umpteen times. I ordered the “Platinum” model, thinking it would be better quality and therefore more accurate.
The blood pressure monitor arrived with a 58-page Owner’s Manual. After the perfunctory Introduction and Know Your Monitor sections, there are: Using Your Monitor without a Smart Device, Using Your Monitor with a Smart Device, Using Memory Functions, Other Settings, ending with Troubleshooting, Maintenance, Optional Accessories and four more sections I’ll likely never look at.
All I want to do is take my blood pressure.
Raising kids was kind of like that. All I wanted, was to have two happy kids who would grow up to be loving, ethical, and successful adults. I wish I had had an Owner’s Manual.
Even though I did have a copy of pediatrician
Dr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care, the guide I used was the one my parents handed down to me by their example. Mother raised me by the Beatitudes; my Father, by Proverbs. From them I knew what was expected and that I was responsible for my life. I never knew them to punish, nor to rescue; but to love and support me.
More and more, as Bill and I pray the Liturgy of the Hours, I understand scripture to be an owner’s manual. I am starting to comprehend deep in the marrow of my soul what it means to be a child of God. During our afternoon spiritual reading over coffee, we read and discuss spiritual writers whose reflections are, for me, day by day, a guide and inspiration.
I am still learning how to use my Platinum Upper Arm Blood Pressure Monitor. (Did I mention that included is an additional 58-page Owner’s Manual in French?) And I admit, I continue to learn, in retirement, the true value of the
abundant life revealed to us by Jesus Christ. And I am still learning, as
Dr. Spock wrote, to “Trust yourself, you know more than you think you do.” I do know more of the truth of last Sunday’s Gospel Acclamation: “Remain in me as I remain in you, says the Lord. Whoever remains in me will bear much fruit.” (John 15:4a,5b NABRE)
-by Jan