It is week two of our year long calligraphy challenge and the prompt was a word. Not just any word, a word that is new to us that we did not know before. I chose the word adenocarcinoma, it is a form of lung cancer. My sister-in-law was diagnosed with it and this vile disease has arrived in full force. Unfortunately other words come along with this one, words like chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, treatments, immunology and blood levels. I do not know enough cuss words to describe what we are all experiencing as a result of this one word. My sister-in-law has finished chemo and is heading into her second round of radiation…cuss word, cuss word, cuss word!
The positive side of this word is that what looked important before may no longer pass the sniff test. The things that we focused on before no longer seem worthy of time or effort. We focus on and talk about what matters, the facts, no longer assume and cut to the chase. Stuff gets forgotten, things get pushed aside and when we think we are having a bad day we only need to remind ourselves that we are not having chemo or radiation so we have no real problems. This one word has brought perspective whether we like it or not.
Life will always surprise us no matter how we plan or plot or think we know, there will always be an unexpected element to our days. Be it a global pandemic, social distancing or time we had not thought we would spend away from people we know and love. None of us are guaranteed anything, not even tomorrow. Our health and well being is a tremendous gift we take for granted until we no longer have it. Let this one word be a reminder to you to cherish your family and health, do not let one more day go by without telling them how much they mean to you.
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