The Wait Is Pretty Heavy

  I don't know about you but if "Good things come to those who wait" I am about to get a big lump of coal. I hate to wait. I live in a society that is formed in lines. If you live in the city like I do the only difference from the country is that there is a hundred people waiting ahead of me not five. I go to where my mom lives in the mountains just to go to the DMV (my son calls them the "Gait Keepers" of humanity) because of the miserable lines that stretch out of the building and into the street in my area. And no, I will not tell you where she lives because I do not want to wait behind you! I call it a good day when I breeze through the errands I need to do fairly easily. That means without the lady with the 50 coupons in front of me who can't see without her glasses and is paying in pennies.That means that there is no guy with the bumping stereo racing between cars and flipping me the bird. What can I say? Maybe it is the culture of "get it quick" that I grew up in. Heck, they could solve life-long problems on the Love Boat in a freakin hour! Let's talk about how this all adds up when it comes to a long-term illness shall we?
  When I was told I had lymphoma I had already been sick for at least a couple of months. It suddenly felt like this endless road had stretched out in front of me with no sunset. How long? and how much? were the beginning of most questions in my mind. I felt doomed. Besides waiting, I hate needles. Why mankind has not found a better way to introduce medication I will never know. We put a hunk of metal into space people! Anyway, I was about to get a whole lot of both in one package. What does one like me do in this situation? Two things, curse and cry of course. Did you think I was much more spiritual? Not by a long shot. I didn't have thanking God for the experience first on my list. It was more like "HELP!" I am afraid and don't think I can do this!
  When I look back on it, my illness was short compared to most. It was May of last year that the symptoms really kicked in. It is less than a year and I am in remission and feeling more like myself every day. How did I do it? I clung like a baby monkey to my faith. I tried my best to focus on what I needed to do for that day or minute. I tried to follow to the best of my ability my doctor's orders. I asked for help when I needed it. I pushed myself harder than I have ever done for anything. I wanted to live. I tried to keep my humor. Did I do all of this to perfection? NO! But I got up and prayed and tried again the next day.
  If you think about it we all hate to wait. I see you in my rear view mirror two inches from my bumper! When it comes to life's circumstances sometimes we have no choice. This past month I have been through my mom's knee replacement surgery. She is a trooper. This time I got to be on the other end and help her out. Did I learn anything? You bet. Thank you Lord, it sure feels good to be on the other end.

"Take A Number...... Please!"

  I can be one tough and stubborn broad, just ask my husband. Wanna know how to get me to do anything? Just tell me it can't be done. I will walk all the way to Hawaii to prove to you that it can be done. Take statistics...no really, please take them. Just don't quote to me the numbers for survival of a life-threatening disease, or how my kids are going to not make it if I am a single mom, or divorce rates of people married more than once or the percentage of anything at all. What does it all mean? Absolutely squat! And do you know why? Because I am a human being and not a number or a statistic and neither are you.

  Do me and yourself a big favor today and put down or click off any medical or other information that quotes to you how many of anything live or succeed or move on to greater things. This information is of no value to you whatsoever. I like what one of my all time favorite people said, "I do not file things into my brain that I find useless or of little value. I will then have plenty of room for the pertinent and things I find of value to me." 

-Sherlock Holmes

 Why am I going on this tirade? Because I hate how statistics make people feel. How do you feel when you read them? You are fighting the fight of your life and here comes the latest 98% of people like you_____( fill in the blank). Do you feel discouraged, heavy, depressed? All for what? We as humans can barely get the weather right! Do we think some scientist in white lab gear has a better take? Are these "professionals" the same people who can't seem to give my good friend the right diagnosis after several tries while she sits home and waits to see if she has cancer? Why leave my fate to a bunch of numbers? Next week they will have a new take on how Captain Crunch cereal is to blame for some mad biological epidemic outbreak. Not me babe. 

  I want you to know that you are not a statistic. I want you to know that you are an individual, unique, made in the image of God. I want you to know that you are not a number but a person, worthy of great awe, fearfully and wonderfully made. Every person has their own DNA and way that their body works and responds to disease and treatment. How many times have you heard about somebody who was given days or weeks or months to live only to still be living after the time given them. Why would a doctor even guess? What kind of news is that? He really has NO idea. 

  I would like to encourage you with my story. I was a single mom and my kids made it. I went through a divorce and now am married to a wonderful man. I had a life-threatening aggressive type of cancer and am living. I am not a statistic. I am a 46 year old woman and have a name, a family, a life worth fighting for, a future. Don't quote me your numbers. I find them useless and of little value and need room for more important things like the great Holmes. If you do, you will be talking to my backside as I take a little stroll to the Hawaiian islands.