Thom posted this on his work blog at ONEPlace@KPL on February 29, 2016, just before going in for his first surgery. I think it expresses well how he is approaching this experience.
Things have changed (
http://www.kpl.gov/ONEplace/blog/Default.aspx?id=15032400135&blogid=2276)
Dear Friends: Our entire community was reminded last week of an enduring lesson: life may change at a moment’s notice. Periodically we revisit this lesson through forces of nature, criminal activities, and other, more personal ways that open a new chapter in our individual lives and our shared life together.
For me, a new chapter began last Wednesday evening.
Last week I learned that I have a mass on my kidney, and this week I will have that mass removed. With surgery and recovery, I will be away from work for about six weeks.
As many of you know, ONEplace is a staff of two, so operations may slow a bit. We are fortunate to have Lolita as ONEplace Associate, who I trust completely and will carry on admirably during my absence.
Please know that, as I move forward into the days and weeks ahead, I do so without fear but with gratitude. I draw upon the work of Jim Collins, and let his Stockdale Paradox form the basis for my approach:
I will retain the faith that I will get through this. I will confront the most brutal facts of my current reality, whatever they might be. And, in the end, I will turn the experience into a defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.
I look forward to living into the experiences of this week and the weeks following, just as I look forward to returning to ONEplace sometime in April.
In the meantime, take care.
Thom
