Day 73 – Reslience and getting to green

I finished a 6-week chemo sequence a week ago today, and since then I feel like our friend’s lawn looked like last July — tired, fragile, pale.  As I helped him move furniture back into his second home, after the renters had left it somewhat in disarray, he showed me how the lawn looked after not being watered all spring.

Watering with the automatic sprinkling system would have been simple, but that task had not been a priority for the family who was now gone.

Our friend began a daily watering routine and within about three weeks the lawn recovered with almost all of its expected green.

Today I received an email from a new friend who summarized her breast cancer adventure from four years ago by saying, “There is life after chemo and radiation!”

I’ve been inspired by stories of resilience all my life, and I appreciate hearing them now from those recovering from cancer, and from addictions.

Deep within humans dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish them, that they never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize their lives if aroused and put into action.

– Paul Stoltz. “The Adversity Quotient”, 1999, p. 3)

I know that there is a resilience inside me that will help “green me” again, just like there is in the roots of the lawn that turned yellowish-white this summer.

I look forward to that time – after five weeks of radiation to start in a few days from now, then to surgery in January sometime – and I’ll be grateful for however long I remain “green” from there forward.  I know that I have resilience in my roots as a human being, and as a child of God.