410 Days Later

Yeah, Yeah, I know it has been 410 days since I lasted posted anything to this blog which, now that I think about it, coincides closely to the day I was diagnosed with cancer. Funny that my writing gene turned off when all that came in. Well I’m back, provoked by my virginal(blogwise) friend who wrote his first piece(blog) and it is very good, a pleasure to read.

Looking back on God’s presence at the time, 

Roll back 400 days or so, and it seems that God was absent but I knew he was there. During the time of Chemotherapy (easy part) and Radiation (hard part) it felt like God stepped around the corner to get a newspaper and just didn't come back until the hard stuff was over. Now I am 35 pounds lighter and carry a bit of lifestyle-changing collateral damage. Lifestyle-changing in that I used to love to eat food, all food and lots of it. Now it’s kind of a pain to eat. I could go into the details but it would likely bore you into never-never land.

“I know there’s a message in there somewhere God,” I thought at the time, but no matter what you might guess, I didn't doubt His care, love or working in my life. I have room in there to allow Him to be God without giving me a fix of the warm fuzzies, intermittent chicken skin, or, as we say in Pentecostal circles, Holy Ghost bumps.

When I first got the diagnosis, Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck with an unknown primary, the first thing I thought was, “I am going to die,” but I didn't go running off like a little girl holding my skirt and screaming, since I really wasn't afraid. I thought at the time that I knew for sure, THIS-WAS-IT, lights out, time to go. When I got over that, I had learned

LESSON ONE- I should want to live.

I knew that I knew God was going to change me and He used His PRESENT ABSENCE to do that.  Today I am at a better place, with the God who created the universe, than I ever was. Explanations may or may not come later.

LESSON TWO-

Whatever it takes to bring us closer, it’s worth it. Unfortunately for us all, it seems we must learn this one over and over.

So, for now I’M BACK(on the blog) as Aerosmith sang so well-

I'm back.

I'm back in the saddle again.

I'm back.

For all you country fans(that never heard of Aerosmith), sit down and click here. For all of the holier-than-thou bunch, there’s a little X in the upper right corner. Click it.

LESSON THREE-

Keep coming back.

I think they say that at AA meetings, followed by “It Works.”

I’m back on the blog, I’ve written some great stories lately, but they just haven’t made the blog. I’m saving them to trade for rejection letters from publishers.

Approximately 35,424,000 seconds or 590,400 minutes or 9840 hours later.