(June 23)
In your brain’s capacity, there are two ways
information is stored. Our wealth of information can be categorized into the
logical and the emotional. More scientifically, into the hypothalamus and the
limbic system, respectfully.
Mari-Jean didn’t know which was
enabling her to walk down the hallway. Her footsteps were muted, the
conversations in passing coming to her ears through balls of cotton.
There will always be debate over which of
these halves of your brain is most important. In the end however, you realize
that both are needed.
Her hand, firmly latched into Logan’s,
was Mari-Jean’s only anchor to terra firma. They followed an orderly through
the Womack Army Medical Center, only a few doors away from seeing Connor.
I’ll
actually see him. Mari-Jean choked in the air in disbelief. Only sixteen
hours ago, it hadn’t been a likelihood. Connor’s captivity- a vague fact that
had been confirmed- had lasted eighteen days. His rescue and evacuation back to
the United States, three days. And her and Logan’s flight from Billings to
Moore County Airport, four hours. A few ragged sheets of notebook paper, folded
away in her purse, was how Mari-Jean had chosen to spend the time.
The emotional hemisphere of our brain is
there to remind the logical hemisphere of why it is needed, and vice versa. To
be one hundred percent of either over the other, would be an imbalance of being
human. Which, essentially, is the brain’s ultimate goal for you.
“Don’t,” the orderly had suddenly
turned and was facing them outside the right-hand door. “Do anything sudden.
Try not to overwhelm him. He’s got a long recovery ahead of him.”
“However long it takes.” Logan told
him.
The orderly nodded and left them to
enter the room by themselves. Mari-Jean took the first cautious step in,
loathing what she had to face. But she would’ve loathed waiting any longer.
All that lingers within your brain, through
conscious or subconscious intention, is shown through your thoughts and
actions. Often, in society, we’re taught to hide these impulses- natural or
logical- from others.
Mari-Jean spotted Connor before he did
her. She and Logan had been warned, but she gasped all the same.
The reasons are various, most often selfish.
And, in some instances, a guard on your brain is wise.
The stitched and swollen boy in the
hospital bed was a thinned out version of their son. He was bruised on both
cheeks, making the pink of old cuts stand out. The left eye was completely shut
with a jagged mess of stitches crossing where his eyebrow should have been. He
was shirtless, exposing patches of gauze, taped from his right shoulder to both
sides of his ribs. What were they hiding?
“Connor.” Logan spoke first, reaching
the edge of the bed with Mari-Jean. He reached out to shake, as they’d always
done since Connor had enlisted. Connor hesitated… then brought up his
hand with a sigh.
They had been warned about the missing
fingers too. But it didn’t take away the stab of disbelief in Mari-Jean’s chest
at the taped off stubs. His index and pinkie… they were all that was
left.
…In some instances, a
guard on your brain is wise. But not when it hinders the balance that God has
placed within it.
Connor’s gaze drifted from the
handshake with his father, finding Mari-Jean. Those green eyes that had
miraculously been pulled from some forgotten place in their family tree. He was
unrecognizable and familiar all at once. She needed to touch him, be certain
that he was real. And that she wasn’t…
Mari-Jean’s fingers brushed a blond
strand back, behind his ear. She didn’t dare look down at his other hand, lying
beside him, the fingers also gone. Connor read her mind it seemed, and he
cracked a grin on the unbroken half of his bottom lip. “’s okay. I’ll be
whittling away again before you know it.”
Mari-Jean shook her head; his abilities
with wood were the least of her worries. “You couldn’t possibly-“
“I can.” Connor insisted, even as he
hissed in a breath. “Enough practice… and patience.”
His quote broke Mari-Jean’s dam and she
drew him in where her tears could wet his hurting face. “Please…
please tell me you thought about more over there then that.”
“You kidding,” Connor about laughed,
but his ribs stopped him. “It was the only thing that kept me going.”
Mari-Jean couldn’t stop herself from
hugging him, pressing her son as close to her as possible. She feared coming
undone if she didn’t. “I love you, Connor.”
His hands pressed awkwardly on her
back. “I love you too.”
God placed your brain in charge of your
breath and body because of its dual capacity for logic and emotion. There is instinct,
analysis, intuition, precision, and method. There is love, fear, anger,
puzzlement, and happiness and confusion. They co-exist in your brain, one in
need of the other. There can be no mistake that the existence of either is
invaluable.
THE END
‘Not by
might nor by power, but by my Spirit.’ ~ Zechariah 4:6
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