Dear All,
You have been so kind not to offer opinions or advice
You have left us free to manage our emotions and challenges
Freeing up the space to remember the future and fold it into the present
What a great gift you have given us.
We are so grateful for having you in our life and the life of our family
We have been riding a roller coaster of decisions in a void we never knew
The art and science of medicine, the path of sadhana and total humanness
Have left us with unfathomable opportunities to grow in the soil of pain mingled joy
In the 14 months of living with cancer and all the changes it brings to daily life
I, we, us have sorted out our true valuables and discarded those barriers to truth.
While the journey never really ends, today I thought it is time to share with you
A little peak inside this cauldron of growth, fascination, and total unknowns.
Victor Frankl wrote that suffering ceases to be suffering when it has meaning.
However the meaning we give is just whatever our mind churns up
So sitting in the void of not knowing what to do and how to manage life decisions
Has allowed us to learn how to be curious about being clueless.
Finding the courage to be present when medicine is simultaneously helping and hurting
When chemotherapy reduces cancer cells while plummeting your ability to breath
Questions arise like which is better, lose vital lung capacity and chase away cancer?
Or wonder is there some method of therapy that preserves the breath and life itself?
This hones our skill and practice of detachment and not engaging with the monkey thoughts of fear
We keep inspiring each other to be cordial to all thoughts, yet to not engage with them.
Are you willing to wait in the void and get curious about this emptiness?
Trusting the momentum of love and the vital force of life will allow the right path to surface?
If you have ever doubted the power and importance of your prayers for you and others
There will be a time when that mist will clear and the fire of your love will reveal its power.
We are grateful for all your letters, texts, and calls and your kind acceptance of our non-replies.
Energy conservation mode and focused practice and presence rarely allows us time to reply.
There will be a day and time when this path lightens, and the summit is near.
In the meantime, we are thankful for what is working and what is not working;
For the inner revelations of buried and unburied, processed and unprocessed thought loops.
In that richness is the ever-unbroken connection binding us all in love and light.
So nice to see you there.
We wish all of you a great and transformative New Year that helps you pierce the veils that hide your glory.
With love,
Blair and Terri