General Post

From Paul:

Cycle 8 week 4

As we look ahead to what this week will bring, it presents a new experience for us. Doris will have progressed beyond the infusion protocols of her treatment regimen. As we reflected on that fact earlier today, she mentioned that normally the day or two before the next infusion, she began to feel less pain. That would be a wonderful blessing if it continues to improve, or at least be reduced for the remainder of her treatment.

I have spent several hours in the last two weeks in painting mode. I am not an artist, this is painting ceiling, walls, and trim of our family room downstairs. Preparatory to painting, I protect the surfaces that I hope NOT to paint. The gift of masking tape and paper allows me to mask off the interface between the wall and the baseboard with a little extra protection into the carpet. This masking preparation has been very successful. Then there are the times when I go free hand with some degree of success, such as when I attempt to tie in the wall with the ceiling corner without masking the ceiling. Sometimes it looks amazingly perfect. Other times, I can see where my brush control was not as effective because the intersecting line between the wall and the ceiling has a dark line on the ceiling at the corner. Sometimes there is a white line on the top of the wall at the corner. The thickness of these lines varies, and is at times almost paper thin, but if you get close to it, you can see its imperfections. Other times, I have an outright blunder, and I need an emergency recovery to remove the wall paint I just applied to the ceiling. Those are the times when I get my wet rag, wrap it around my putty knife and clean up my mess in a focused way. When I look at the finished product, it looks pretty good. When I am on the ladder and can see it close, I recognize that my little project is far from perfect. Sometimes the blunder is too great, or procrastinating on the cleaning of things feels more attractive than stopping and cleaning up now. I know from experience that procrastination with respect to over-painting clean up does not end well. In those instances, whether we can clean up and restore, or whether we need to break out the other paint and repaint an area, we need to be prepared with those resources.

Our lives are like that. We set out with the best of intentions. We prepare and we move forward. Sometimes we make an obvious mistake, and we need to undo what we have just done. Sometimes it is as easy as getting a wet rag and wrapping it around a putty knife to correct the situation. When the mistakes are less obvious, we have an opportunity to focus on the overall effect, and we can still consider it as being good. With our current journey with cancer, we can see the hand of the Lord was preparing us for what has become our lot. We know that we can reach out to Him when we need that extra support, comfort and strength. Sometimes we need to swallow our pride, start or restart a new activity, repent (re-paint) and move forward to craft our life’s work. It is my experience that God is always willing to not only accept our best efforts, but He is ready to receive us, extend His comfort, His strength, and His peace that “passeth all understanding” (Phillippians 4:7) to assist in our times of need.

General post

From Doris:

My sister has a friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer. This friend’s reaction to her diagnosis has been inspiring to me. She likened her treatment journey as an effort to clear her body’s garden of everything that is wrong so she can start over and build a clear beautiful garden.

Her focus is forward thinking. She is already planning to rebuild. 

I have spent too much time looking backward and grieving the things I have lost. I will no longer post to my grieving section. That is not to say I will not grieve, but I am choosing to not do so publicly. My Savior will continue to be my support.

I believe this change will help me shift my focus to my future. My cancer diagnosis slammed a lot of doors on things I had planned for my future.  I can’t imagine what life will be like when my treatment finishes. My future has been on hold.

I continue to make English paper pieced flowers, but because of this woman’s words, I now see them as part of my new garden. When I complete a quilt made from these flowers, its beauty will likely astound me. I hope I will also be amazed at my own personal growth when I complete this cancer journey.