Author: alwaysbridging

Throughout the month, this feeling of sadness and uncertainty is not fleeting (as in it is always there) but it is often superseded by some, usually overpowering, sense of love and goodwill. Yes, this too is simultaneous and always there.

Scared and storm-weathered

A bit like “Come Alive” course

With Love exploding

Fond imaginings

A caregiver’s medicine

And being less tight

Creating goodness

Visualizing wellness

Without insistence

Simultaneous

Optimistic, authentic

Grieving in Deep Joy

I can see the heavens while tethered to the ground. The balance of deep hope is called forth in the midst of rest, recovery and reality.

Lord, grant to your servant Rob the help of your power, to bear what comes his way in his treatments and that his health be renewed.

*From a priest

May everything we create be filled with peace and joy and love and light.

May we grow in wisdom and strength and health, so that we may serve creation by extending peace to all.

May we cherish no ill feeling toward anyone, so that all may live in peace.

*From my first yoga teacher, now deceased, via a neighbor

(While imagining golden yellow)…May Rob be filled with loving kindness

(While imagining new growth on leaves)…May Rob be well

(While imagining blue, pure and bright)…May Rob be peaceful and at ease

(While imagining magenta)…May Rob be happy

*From a friend

Dear Friends,

Yesterday we jumped in Lake Washington. Very refreshing!

Yes, we did meet with Rob’s oncologist, Dr. Richard Ancheta. Next Rob will update bloodwork and CT scans. Chemotherapy will likely start sometime in September after a second opinion at Fred Hutch.

For background and statistics, dig into “Rob’s Story” on his Caring Bridge site. Knowing the official odds are long and that none of us gets out of this alive, we are choosing to focus on Rob’s personal stats. Maybe you already know Rob has a great track record. For instance, most recently he was in that 20% with no complications after cystectomy. No wonder he is calm and steady, as usual. While the rest of us are stunned, bereft at times and still trying to figure out how we can schedule the future, he is playing the piano, watering his garden and tending the bees. Soon he will be running again, God willing.

We have learned that what helps most is

*when you bring us food.

*when we talk about something besides cancer.

We believe in nourishment, laughter, the science and miracles of modern medicine and the power of prayer and friendship. We delight in and welcome your individual version of that. Come join us in the Big Time. It’s quite the ride.

Love,

Penny

PS What is that coming out of Rob’s head in the photo?!

B.S. Before Surgery…After reading the following quote about an upcoming course at church, “Contemplate what it means to stand on the threshold with courage and attentiveness, listening for the next congruent step, and honor the threshold moments in your life as an integral part of the process of transformation and change,” I started recording my internal conversations. Someday, on the other side of Rob’s surgery, I imagine recording “Inner Witness Plus.”

Me:                        Are you there?

Inner Witness:    Always.

Me:                        Do you love me?

Inner Witness:    Always.

Me:                        Will you help me live here and now?

Inner Witness:    Always.

Me:                        Oh yeah, and eat less?

Inner Witness:    If we must.

Me:                        I do so want to be strong and healthy. Also to push away Fear.

Inner Witness:    Fear has nothing on me.

Me:                        Really? Then why do you allow it?

Inner Witness:    Not my doing, honey. If you live right here, right now, you might feel fright but not capital-F Fear. And only occasionally at that.

Me:                        What about on O-day?

Inner Witness:    Maybe. So 7/19 – Rob’s operation. Got it. On my calendar.

Me:                        [Pursing my lips to blow a kiss.]

Inner Witness:    You know, there’ll be a giant gang with you that day.

Me:                        Yep. I’ll try to remember.

Inner Witness:  And remember, it will help to breathe, feel the juice shiver through you.

Me.                        Ok, we’ll see.

Inner Witness:    I will hold you. All the legions will too.

Me:                        You mean the living and the dead?

Inner Witness:   Of course, sugar. You can reach out and feel the net we make.

Me:                        Thank God for that.

(Artwork by Penelope Jackson)

What to do when your 91-year-old mother has been hacked? At least that’s what I thought had happened when she popped up as a new Instagram user. Given my full-to-over-flowing plate at the moment, I did what I could. I ignored it.

But apparently my daughter Carolina started checking around. This is evidence of our team approach with Grandma. She’s described as “living independently” in a retirement high-rise where two daily meals in the dining hall as well as light housekeeping are included. We, on her local support team, know otherwise. Back-up checking and more help is recommended.

According to Carolina, Grandma couldn’t remember the details of how Instagram started…which is concerning. Still, I am choosing to find the bright side. After all, what would you do if your brother-in-law from Spokane was in town for six weeks for an experimental protocol to address pancreatic cancer AND your husband awaits major surgery on Friday for bladder cancer? Of course, you’d ignore the “hacking” or better yet, try to smile and Shore. Up. The. Team.

The other day I stopped by Mom’s and realized my son Clarke had visited her recently. He had posted a map of Seattle and had marked our addresses to help orient his grandmother. She told me he had played jazz tunes on her keyboard and brought along ice cream—chocolate and raspberry—for them to enjoy together. Perfect memory—hoorah!

Later Carolina reported in that nephew Elliot (Rob’s brother’s son) had been the guess-who guest and Instagram negotiator. He’d given Mom rides home from family events in the past so knew where to drop by. Unlike me (after all, I like collecting field-dependent good-girl points), he didn’t feel the need to brag about this good deed. Actually he enjoyed visiting his local grandma and has no sense of obligation. The vibes are mutual—Mom appreciated the visit and so did he.

As the plot thickens on my side of the street, I imagine it will be harder for me to see Mom as often as we’d both like. I hope the kids continue to visit and other friends and family call her. Fortunately she’s loved at her home and included by her buddies for card games every evening. But she says that contact “from the outside” is also life-giving and fun for her. Please let me know when/if you visit because it ends up creating a “two-fer” in that I feel almost as good knowing about the visits as she does experiencing them. Welcome to the team!