This morning I sat with a new friend Kathi at a fun upbeat bakery sipping my mango smoothie and talking about life's challenges. Kathi's first husband died of cancer six years after they were married. She was a young mom with two small children. He was ill for almost two years. Now eight years later Kathi is remarried and is a step-mom and a child with her new husband too.
We talked about the bumpy road that comes with cancer. We talked about being step-moms. We talked about God and staying fit, about having a Plan B, Plan C, Plan D when treatment A doesn't happen perfectly, and we talked about the gift of peace when life is precarious.
Nothing has changed in my life since 9:00 this morning, but I do FEEL better. Kathi gave me permission to be in this funky place. She said she'd been there too. "They never tell you your going to feel certain things so you wonder what's wrong with me? Then you talk to others who go through long term illnesses, and you realize everyone feels these things."
I guess the best gift Kathi gave me today was knowing I can be in a funky place but I'm never alone. Somehow that makes the funk FEEL much better : )
