The dark side:

Cancer, any cancer I suppose, but certainly “stage IV cancer” is like a silent hurricane. Without a sound much that once was, food, snacks, drinks that once were such a pleasure, even comfort, are, over night, gone with the wind. What to eat or drink becomes a tasteless wasteland.

Time, once so free, so plentiful, so often squandered becomes very precious, and precious moments become like found treasures in the aftermath of the storm.

Time for favorite things is now consumed by medical considerations, designed or so we are told, to clean up the devastation.

Like tornadoes spinning off the main storm whole new medicinal vocabularies come at you with words like debris strewn all over a confused mind with no time to pursue meaning. It is not clear which is better, to duck from the words or let them hit you like so many unintelligible shards of glass, and flying metal.

Time occupied with enjoyable pursuits is now filled with appointments, travel, schedules, keeping track of daily pills, poison and pumps – quantities, frequencies, times with or without foods – no fruit half hour before or after, and on the tweaking goes.

Where there had once been an easy dinner guest there is now a very fussy eater, not by choice, but by compulsion.

Sleeping through the night becomes a thing of the past as new bodily needs become alarms to action.

Not very predictable side effects begin to take their toll on one’s ability to function. Quality of life is sacrificed to some not so sure extension of time in the here in the now, more or less dysfunctional time, but time none the less.

Conversation much too often goes from the pleasures of this life to the concerns of the present.

Where there had been function, there is now dysfunction. The utility poles of what once was useful have been blown down and away with the wind.

Where there had been competence and confidence there is now uncertainty, hesitancy, and incompetence.

The time and funds for maintaining infrastructure are wiped out in the aftermath of cleaning up the mess. Financial viability gives way to financial desperation.

Perhaps worst of all, the knight in shining armor becomes his damsel’s greatest distress…

The bright side:

The Good News is that there is One Who knows all about the storms of life. In fact, His Spirit is a Hurricane Hunter. If we fly with Him, we can pass into the eye of the storm, where there is peace, light and even greater understanding than can be found before the storm.

Love!