A Prayer (And Place) For Uisdean Ruadh

As some may be aware, my long time friend Uisdean Ruadh and his mother,  A Mhaithar na hUsidean Ruadh, were both separately notified at the end of February that they needed to leave their apartments - for Uisdean Ruadh, 15 years and for his mother, over 40 years - by the end of May this year.  Many of you have been kindly praying for them during their search in a difficult market, for which he - and I - are thankful.

There is, as Paul Harvey would say, now a "Rest of the Story".

One of the features of The Ranch, not heretofore discussed, is The Cabin.

The Cabin is a very small (800 square feet? 900?) structure at The Ranch, about 100 yards down the hill from The House. It was originally (as the saying goes) a logging shed (called a donkey shed?) that was dragged from place to place following the loggers. Over the years a foundation was put under it, and slowly rooms were added onto it by family: My material grandfather and my mother's brother built at least one room, TB The Elder and my maternal grandfather built another.  Over time it has been modeled and remodeled and re-remodeled; when we first starting coming here regularly it was where we stayed (for some reason I remember this horrible shag carpet and an electric organ.; both have [perhaps fortuitously] disappeared).

It has never entered into the story until now because since the 1990's it has been a rental and, as a rental, was really other people's and not part of any story here.

Never once was it marketed.  People showed up by word of mouth or recommendation as others left; it scarcely went unoccupied for a long period of time (the Cowboy's son, The Young Cowboy, then The Young Cowboy and his wife and (then) son, and then his sister all passed through here, for example).  My father valued good tenants above good money and so charged less than he could have gotten if it was priced at market value. And there was never really a problem with the tenants:  all respected the unspoken trust implied by how my father handled things (never once was a lease signed; it was all done on a handshake) and except for one or two odd incidents, almost nothing needed to significantly repaired or replaced - in fact, some tenants actually made improvements themselves.

Four days after Uisdean Ruadh  and I talked about looking for an apartment for him and his mother, the current renters - who had told us they were staying until the end of Summer - let us know that due to circumstances they had to leave by the middle of April.  I talked with my sister, then called Uisdean Ruadh:  It was small -  maybe two-ish bedrooms and one bath, and had a pellet stove for heat - but it would at least be somewhere for him and his mother to stay until he was able to reorient their lives. It was certainly available if they needed it.  

Initially he thanked us profusely and said it was an option.  Then, two weeks later at a doctor's appointment, his mother's doctor expressed that he should consider Hospice for his mother.  At that point,  he simply said he was too overwhelmed with trying to deal with both things and did the offer still stand?

We walked through it yesterday.  He will start moving his things in this month.

I do not, as I hope my readers know, post this as a sort of "look at us" sort of self- congratulatory post. I would not bring it up at all except (as usual) I think there are some larger lessons that can be applied.

1)  The first, of course, is simply to thank everyone who prayed, had good thoughts, or sent good vibrations.  Thank you.

2)  The second is that for those that prayed, this is a demonstration that prayer - your prayers - worked.

3)  The third - the one that has made me the most self- aware - is that sometimes we are the answer to the prayers.

Eaton Rapids Joe had posted an comment about disaster relief donations and in it, noted that often times people use disasters as a way to give what they think people need instead of what they may actually need and in some cases, as a way to clear out "stuff".  Often times, the comment noted, cash really was the better option as the people on the ground knew what was actually needed.  And was a good and interesting insight from someone in the midst of relief.

However, I do not wonder that sometimes that trains us to believe that the only sort of aid we can or are really obligated to offer is that cash when sometimes, we have the ability to offer more.

I have to confess that when the previous renters notified us, the first thought was to see about refilling the Cabin with another renter paying the going rate as it really goes into my parents' account which we are stewarding, not owning.  But in Uisdean Ruadh's voice I heard an anguish, an anguish I had heard only twice before:  once when his father had passed, the other when his ex-wife filled for divorce.  The thought was about 10 seconds long before I talked to my sister.

In this case, good was in our ability to do.

I always find remarkable to realize that a prayer has been answered, whether something small or large.  What is even more remarkable is to realize that one was actually the answer to the prayer God had in mind all the time - at that in some unfathomable sense out of depths of time, God looked at a logging shed and found it would a far more profound impact than its own simple existence and preserved and expanded it and made it available precisely when a need was present.  All we needed to do was say "Yes".

Perhaps to be an answer to more prayers, we simply need to learn to say "Yes" to God more often.