It’s an arresting view, here from the 6th floor of the Wake Med Hospital complex. We’re looking out to the northeast, in the general direction of Rolesville and then Wake Forest. I can see the undulations of the North Carolina Piedmont, thousands of trees beginning to change color, shimmering, luminescent, under the ever changing cloudscape of the November sky.

This really is a uniquely focused experience, cocooned in a room with expert medical care in the middle of a day where America is re-calibrating its future based on the extraordinary political events of November 8.

There’s a lot to be said for shelter from the cacophony of post election noise, the clamor, the angst, and the sudden screech to a halt of an electoral system that had become – by any measure – unhinged.

Here in the hospital the important concerns are not ideological so much as flesh and blood, life and death. It doesn’t matter what you think about Donald Trump, or Hillary Clinton when the PA announces, “Trauma alert! Incoming to the E.R. ETA  seven minutes…” or, “Code Blue! Radiology. Code Blue!”

Rebekah’s surgery went well, the doctors said, and word is that we are to be optimistic for a positive outcome. Dr. Suh was happy, so we’re pleased. But post op and recovery – of course – has varied from smooth to rough. It turns out your body doesn’t like being opened up and having your vertebrae rearranged. So, while surgery was apparently a success, it’s been a difficult day.

Regardless, life is a blessing and a gift. It’s my prayer that all Americans learn the truth of this, and move forward – together – from this point with the intention of gratitude, and a real celebration of all that we have to be thankful for as a free, and as a redeemed, people.

From, a room with a view – DEREK