Yesterday I had the privilege to accompany a friend for her first chemo treatment. As usual I was running late, but we somehow ( speedy speedy) managed to still get there on time. It was an immediate push and pull for a check in, blood work, meet the doctor, kind of day. It wasn’t long until we were motioned back for HER seat for the day. 6-1/2 hours of treatment they said. At first glance yes these chairs were empty but NOT FOR LONG. WE sat with many others as they came in for their treatment. Truth is we were surrounded up and down the halls with others getting treatment as well. I saw yesterday first hand that CANCER is not prejudice… It has no color preference, no age requirement, no sexual orientation, and no favorites. It plays with everyone. I was trying hard to wrap my head around what my sweet friend was fixing to endure. They keep it so so cold in that place so I sat there in the corner with my “chemo blanket” wrapped around me. Yes, the one I stole from a buggy cause I didn’t know to bring my own.
As the clock ticked away I began to think back on many things. After alittle while I felt my anxiety rising. My first thoughts were of the many years that my sister sat in those chairs and gathered up with others for her chemo treatments. What a long drooling journey that was. Watching her become frail and weak through time but watching her HOLD her HOPE near to her HEART. She seemed to do it with such grace and ease. She was then and still is, my HERO.
THEN I began to think back on the days of old ( me young) when I lived in Jackson and we actually traveled up and down Woodrow Wilson. Saturdays to the Jackson Mall and sometimes to the Farmers Market. This Mall reminded me of all the shopping fun I had through the years. NOW… just a compound for doctors and nurses administering many types of medical treatments. As I walked the main mall area to get lunch I could almost visualize McRaes and JCPennys. As I went alittle further I could almost smell the incense from the “hippie” shops and quickly recalled the little boutiques with all the bell bottoms hanging in the windows.
AS I gazed outside to check the weather I could see off in the distance in the far northwest parking lot, an old brick building. A long time ago I would check in to that building every single month with a baby on my hip to get my foodstamps. YEAP, I did just that. See you never know what others have gone through until you really get to know them. Back in the day while attending nursing school and raising my Son alone, this was how I was able to put food on the table. It was an experience i’ll never forget. We would check in and get in line and stand for hours till you finally moved up to the MAGICAL window. That window held all the power… I was cursed, spit on and told to leave many many times. Regardless of how scared I was during those trips, I had to stand still, stand tall, cause I had to provide for my baby. A lot of grit formed inside of me during those times. There is a song that says “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”. I know that to be true.
Looking back on LIFE and remembering strategic heartache and hard times, allows me to know that GOD has always been there with me. Walking every step of the way in this thing WE all call LIFE. Everyone has a story. You have a story, I have a story and when you put them all together we learn more and more about the MAJESTY of GOD. I love stories.
LIFE is what you make it. Life is full of valleys yet mountaintops, Life yet Death, Good yet EVIL and STILL GOD IS THERE, GOD IS ABLE, GOD IS GOD of ALL. GOD CAN AND WILL USE YOUR BROKENNESS…
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1