Sorrow may endure for a night

Summer was looking pretty bleak, a few hours ago. The consummate pleasures of we Northern dwellers crescendo in the summer months...gardening, running around barefoot, swimming, the long shadows of afternoon sun glinting on aluminum softball bats, and the crickets song in evening. How much of that can you revel in, fighting cancer?

Deliverance.

Freedom.

"Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

Aaron gave me a painting yesterday with four words in it: Dream big. [permission granted] And that's what God just did: permitted us to turn again to dreams. The pathology on the 2 inch tumor they removed yesterday came back, miraculously, benign. Which means a summer with hair, a summer without chemo or radiation or vomiting or slowly growing old. A summer without dying from cancer! My survival odds are back to 76% at 10 years. Which, albeit not great odds, is so much better than what we had to contemplate over the past week.

The cloud has passed over the sun, and we are bathed in warmth again. The rain shower has blown past on the summer wind, and we are left in the cool green fields of flowers and frogs singing. We are waiting to hear the katydid's lullaby and look forward to dipping our feet in the rushing ocean later this summer. I can sign the kids up for swimming lessons. I can take my comprehensive exam and continue pursuing my degree. I will be able to take walks, and stand being out in the sun, enjoy my friends coming to visit in June, go to weddings this summer and dance.

I can't wait to get my feet dirty in this field of joy.