Goodbye 2019!

What a year it has been! On May 3rd I learned I had a brain tumor that turned out to be cancerous. After surgery to remove it, I began radiation and chemotherapy treatments, the latter of which still continue. So as we exit the teens and roar into the twenties I thought I’d look back at the year and acknowledge what a great year it has been. Although there have been trials and troubles in 2019, I’m still thankful for this year. How can I say that? I'm glad you asked.

Here’s a heartily abridged list of reasons why 2019 was a good year for me:

• I got to go to an Alan Walker concert in Tucson with my family. 
• I got to attend a Pats game at Gillette Stadium with my family. 
• I got to run my favorite half marathon in Fort Collins. 
• I won my age group in a 5k at elevation (8250 ft) just days after completing radiation therapy. 
• Liverpool won Champions League after one of the most improbable comebacks in history against one of the best teams in the world. #YNWA 
• I got to go to GABF with some lifelong friends. 
• I finally made it to TopGolf with some best friends. 
• I got to star in my own viral video (linked here). 
• I got to find out what I look like with a Mohawk (not too shabby, if I do say so myself).

  

  Lopsided Mohawk!

  
  
• I found out for sure that I do have a brain. Someone has actually seen my brain, can you say that? 
• I learned that you CAN have joy in all situations. 
• I learned that you CAN be thankful in all situations. 
• I learned just how much my family loves me. For that matter, I learned how much my church family and friends love me. 
• I learned that God is good. All the time. 
• I learned all these things because God’s sustaining grace is REAL.

I’m thankful that 2019 is over and I’m thankful that I’m still here for the dawning of another year.

I am still learning how to be content with hardship, calamity, and weakness, but I know that Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12: 9-10). I know that God works all things together for our good and his glory, and I rest in His promises.

Being diagnosed with a terminal disease has been difficult, not to mention a little scary, and even though I am exactly where God wants me to be and I still fully trust his plans for my life, I am struck by this quote from C. S. Lewis: “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”

Wondering how painful the best will be has caused me to contemplate my demise and look back on my life. I came to the realization that there are many things I'd do differently, but I also came to realize that I've already experienced a lifetime’s worth of blessing in my 44 years, and if this is all that I get then it is more than enough and infinitely more than I deserve. I have experienced more love, more blessings, more joy in my life than many people experience in a full lifespan. God is good. All the time.

Goodbye 2019, we’re on to 2020 and I am excited to watch God unveil his plans for my life, no matter what that looks like.
 

There was an Old Lady...

You remember that song you learned as a kid about the old lady who swallowed a spider to catch a fly, but we never find out why she swallowed the fly? I feel like that with my cancer treatment lately. The oncologist prescribes meds to kill the cancer, and then other meds to deal with the side-effects of the cancer-killing meds, and then when those have side-effects there's still more meds to take. 

My wife is questioning my sense of humor just because I composed a little song parody. I couldn’t quite figure out how to end it though, I need some help with the last word.

I know an old man
With a cancerous brain mass
But I just can’t grasp
How he got a cancerous brain mass
Perhaps he’ll pass?

I know an old man
Who took the chemo
His White Blood Cell flow
Went frighteningly low

He took the chemo
To fix the brain mass
But I just can’t grasp
How he got a brain mass
Perhaps he’ll pass?

I know an old man
Who got shots every day,
Oy vey! Shots every day?
He got shots every day
To make the white blood cells okay.
The shots made his bones ache,
So there was still more to take!
He got shots every day
Because of the chemo,
He took the chemo,
To fix the brain mass,
But I just can’t grasp,
How he got a brain mass
Perhaps he’ll pass?

I know an old man
Who took antihistamines
Antihistamines? What’s wrong with his genes?
He took antihistamines to fix the bone ache
He got the bone ache from the shots he’d take.
He got shots every day,
Because of the chemo,
He took the chemo,
To fix the brain mass,
But I just can’t grasp,
How he got a brain mass
Perhaps he’ll pass?

Or, he’ll kick its ____

 

I've Got Cat-Like Speed & Reflexes

I am graceful like a gazelle. Want proof? Here I am taking out the recycle bin one icy Friday morning. Enjoy!