Please pray for Irv and me.  We both have shoulders hurting so much
that it's like a knife sticking us every time we move.

His came from degerative disease in the shoulers and a lifetime of
using them.  He can do nothing now except eat with that arm and hand,
or bathe, and each movement hurts.  He does get in and out of bed and
that hurts too, so much he groans.  That hurts shoulder, back and
knees.

In my case, x-rays showed I too have the degenerative changes, but it
was exacerbated when I tripped over a rug in the entrance to a grocery
store.  They had two rugs piled on top of each other during the icy
season.  I didn't see the extra rug and fell down very hard on
concrete.  I didn't have time to go for PT until recently, due to other
injuries, treatments, having to care for Irv, having to drive many
miles to shop, etc.  Now I will start Physical Therapy on Monday, but
it's unlikely this can be resolved without surgery.  In my case, as
Irv's, it's like a knife twists in there every time I use the shoulder.
  And I have to do all our housework except for sweeping the floor,
which a woman from the Senior Center does every two weeks or so.  I
just got off a walker which I used after my back injury.  I have been
repeatedly injured this year, starting with the auto accident last
October.

We are like Jesus who had everything being pulled apart and broken on
the cross.  I think of that often--does this make us like Him?  Not
particularly.  We are not saintly, we cry, moan, and complain about
such misery and the lack of hope of ever getting out of it--except by
the rapture or the calling out into the wilderness or death, whichever
comes first.  We know that our suffering has no merit in the eyes of
God.  Only Jesus' suffering has merit, because he was sinless--and we
are far from that.

Therefore, we tend to feel our lives are useless.  Even our suffering
does nothing good.

But we nevertheless hope for the rapture, in spite of the ridicule of
our family here, especially my son, who calls us every name in the
book--stupid, moronic, irresponsible, whiner, taking one's self too
seriously, etc.

Life is hell, and most Doves know this.

Mariel and Irv