Today marks seven years since that fateful day in 2011 when my future was forever changed, or at least revealed. Cancer does that to you. Whether you are a survivor, an ongoing fighter, a caregiver, or the family left behind, you will never be the same. While this was not a shock to God, it most certainly was to us! I will never forget one minute of that day. I can still envision the moments in the waiting room, the doctor’s words/voice/tone, his simple “I’m so sorry…,” the stack of papers that I left with, my call to my mom/to Paul, pouring over those papers with him at a Chinese buffet, and sitting at this very computer a hour later when he walked through the door announcing that THIS is where he needed to be. That was when it hit me. I had cancer.
Fast forward seven years, one stem cell transplant, two CAR T-Cell trials, two donor lymphocyte infusions, one parathyroidectomy, one knee replacement, a jillion trips to MDA, and a partridge in a pear tree later and I still have cancer with all the trimmings. But I’m still here!!! I have outlived a business partner and a dear church friend. Survival guilt is a real thing. Many of you may wonder why I push myself the way I do to see my friends and family. It’s simple. I really have no idea how long I have left. None of us do, to be honest. Maybe a year. Maybe ten. All our days are numbered. I simply choose to make mine count as much as possible. No worries. No fussing. Just love of God, family, friends, and this beautiful world He has given us. It’s really pretty simple.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40
“Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.”
Psalm 96:11-12
Life is good. And I am thankful.
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