Every once in a while, life hands over a slap upside the head. This weekend was one of those moments when life said, “Hey, slow it down, girl.”
I left for Michigan with the boys in tow. Lauren was down in Texas with Sarah and Joe was still working. The boys let me enjoy my mellow music on the way up while they buried their heads in the laptop. There wasn’t much talking on the way up, we were decompressing from a busy week. Heck, make that a busy summer. The kids were off in three directions most of the time with Mom on a plane the other half of the time. I vaguely remembered a husband somewhere in all this.
On the way up, I thought about my Dad and the ups and downs since his diagnosis of esophageal cancer last summer. Last November, we celebrated with good news: Dad had kicked the cancer on its rear end.
A few weeks ago, he found a new lump. At first, the doctor wasn’t too concerned, he figured it was benign. Dad went for a PET scan and he was waiting for the results the morning we arrived.
Dad was sitting in his chair when we arrived and after a hug, we cut to the chase. “Well, the results aren’t good,” Dad said. “The tests show that the cancer is back and one tumor is heading toward the lungs. But the good news is, it’s still small.”
So another round of chemo is coming up and Dad is determined to extend another kick into cancer’s rear end. I’m buoyed by his optimism and his outlook and I know he has the strength to withstand anything. The other tough blow over the weekend was the news that both of my brother’s have Barrett’s, which means they’re at an increased risk, but with diet, exercise and monitoring, they can kick this too.
All of this which had me thinking about how life goes by crazy fast– and I thought back to a friend’s recent remark about how I seemed to have it all together and have achieved a balanced life. “You need to teach me how you are able to travel, write a book, go barefooting with the world’s champions, and advocate for causes to change the world for the better,” she wrote.
After laughing hysterically, I informed her that my life was actually an unbalanced washing machine on a lopsided spin cycle.
So every now and then, when life slaps us upside the head, that’s when we slow down and pay attention to the stuff that matters: the relationships we have with those around us and the stuff that brings us joy instead of sorrow. One friend reminded me to celebrate the fact that we were given a gift of time since Dad’s diagnosis last year. So I’m thankful that I get to wrap my arms around my parents each time I visit them.
So, over the weekend, I slowed it down. I bonded with the boys as we floated in the lake after tubing. I went shopping with my Mom, sis and a neighbor and we gathered some healthy food for the weekend. I watched Two and Half Men with Dad and told him about my barefooting and wakeboarding adventures of the day.
Don’t wait for life to slap you upside the head.
