So I came home from the hospital today with good news I wanted to share. I was there for a EGD scope, a procedure that looks at the upper GI tract. A post-chemotherapy PET scan had shown the original cancer in my bladder was gone -- yay chemo! -- but there was a suspicious area … Continue reading The saga continues — I’m locked out of Facebook again, and I’m taking it as a sign to spend more time growing the blog
‘Are you there, God? It’s me …’: My prayer life at 80 and the 11-year-old title character in a Judy Blume novel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzRzojHC3iE&t=51s One thing about living with cancer -- and cancer treatment -- for several months now, it's jump-started my prayer life. But not in the way I might have expected. For several years now, I've been meeting with a spiritual director, and I've read up on practices like lectio divina and Ignatian contemplation. Instead, I'm … Continue reading ‘Are you there, God? It’s me …’: My prayer life at 80 and the 11-year-old title character in a Judy Blume novel
Giving up chemo and starting yoga exercises for Lent — an interim progress report as the side effects wear off
Next steps: Jane Adams' gentle yoga for seniors and resting up after chemo. Journaling the last of chemotherapy and its immediate aftermath, then a couple of weeks devoted to gathering strength for what comes next. I started this post three days out from my last infusion, just before the side effects hammered me -- right … Continue reading Giving up chemo and starting yoga exercises for Lent — an interim progress report as the side effects wear off
A chemo-infused reflection on Ash Wednesday, St. Francis and the first few signs of spring outside the window
Giotto, 1297-99, Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi, (WikiArt). Welp, I know what I want to give up for Lent this year: Chemotherapy. That's what. Yesterday I celebrated Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, by beginning my last cycle of chemotherapy at the Southern Illinois University medical school's Simmons Cancer Institute. No pancakes, but I did eat … Continue reading A chemo-infused reflection on Ash Wednesday, St. Francis and the first few signs of spring outside the window
12-step wisdom and a terrible, horrible, kinda good, maybe not-so-bad day halfway through chemotherapy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YOQbE692s8&t=266s Fr. Brendan McManus SJ, Gardiner Street Parish Dublin, recorded Oct. 25, 2020 As I reach the halfway point in chemotherapy this week, I'm making a special effort to take things one day at a time. So let me tell you about a terrible, horrible, maybe kinda good, not-so-bad-after-all day I had last week. As … Continue reading 12-step wisdom and a terrible, horrible, kinda good, maybe not-so-bad day halfway through chemotherapy
Praying only for the knowledge of God’s will and the strength to carry it out amid the ‘paradoxical tragedy-wonder of life’
Roman arch over the Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem, November 2012 Overheard the other day in the infusion center at Southern Illinois University while I was headed toward the bathroom for the umpteenth time: NURSE 1: “He took his Lasix before he came in.” NURSE 2: “So he’s going to go wee, wee, wee all the way home?” I had a snappy comeback, but … Continue reading Praying only for the knowledge of God’s will and the strength to carry it out amid the ‘paradoxical tragedy-wonder of life’
A Jesuit, a Protestant reformer and a spiritual mutt walk into an ER (instead of a bar): How I’m learning to trust God
Pilgrims entering Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem, November 2012. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. -- Proverbs 3:5-6 (NRSV): Our prayer doesn’t change God’s mind, it changes us. It helps us change our own minds and hearts. It … Continue reading A Jesuit, a Protestant reformer and a spiritual mutt walk into an ER (instead of a bar): How I’m learning to trust God
‘A Mild Touch of the Cancer’: In which I learn to use the ‘C-word’ from an ‘ex-comedian’ and blogger in New Zealand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Wv_wwFH1I David Downs, TEDxAuckland, Auckland, New Zealand, April 11, 2019 Like so many people of my generation, I didn't even want to hear about cancer. Too upsetting. If I saw the word in a headline, I'd scroll down to the next story in the directory. But after I got my diagnosis, I went online to … Continue reading ‘A Mild Touch of the Cancer’: In which I learn to use the ‘C-word’ from an ‘ex-comedian’ and blogger in New Zealand
Pilgrims: Reading about a pilgrimage on Spain’s Camino de Santiago as I set out on my chemotherapy journey
Pilgrims on the Camino del Norte, Spain (Wikimedia Commons) After my first round of chemotherapy Tuesday at Southern Illinois University's Simmons Cancer Center, I was asked how it went. I think my answer surprised us both (I know it did me), and the conversation went a little bit like this. "I liked it," I blurted … Continue reading Pilgrims: Reading about a pilgrimage on Spain’s Camino de Santiago as I set out on my chemotherapy journey
Ringing in the new (church) year on St. Andrew’s Day with the daily prayer and meditation on an Irish Jesuit website
Pietro da Cortona, 'Calling of St. Peter and St. Andrew,' ca. 1626-30 (Wikimedia Commons) One of the few things I remember clearly from my confirmation classes 50-plus years ago in an Episcopal church is the date of St. Andrew's Day. Somehow it lodged in my preadolescent brain, when I wasn't wisecracking about the wives of … Continue reading Ringing in the new (church) year on St. Andrew’s Day with the daily prayer and meditation on an Irish Jesuit website
Ordinary Time 