The last two months have been the very best I have felt since December. One of the highlights of my summer has been my sister, Loni, who has been here since the end of June.   She will return to Reno next week.

Fortunately, and thankfully, I have felt good enough to travel and see some of the local sites with her…we even had a Lobsta roll!  Delicious!  Loni is a really good cook. Thanks to her, my thighs are starting to touch which I think is the first sign of becoming a mermaid.

Driving has been a combination of laughs and white knuckles. We have come to learn not to make eye contact with another driver while driving in Boston and to watch for those who decide to make a sudden left hand turn across three lanes of traffic on a red light.  Interesting driving style out here!

We took a day trip to the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro, Massachusetts and found out that you can purchase a prayer candle out of a vending machine…who would think it??  

In goes the money and out comes a huge candle! Very funny!!  To tell you the truth, a coke would have been a lot more welcomed than a candle since it was in the 90’s. The person then lights the candle in the Chapel of Light. 

It’s been a fun summer.  I’ll miss Loni, our long walks, our trips, her cooking and her support and accompaniment during my medical checks.

As a matter of fact, I seem to have gotten the “golden buzzer award” on most of my latest scans. 

Results show a significant decrease in abdominal tumors and no other evidence of metastases anywhere else. This has been an amazing result of the BRAF meds.

Of course, there is always an unknown in the mix and another riddle to solve. This has to do with a lymph node that is present in my neck and an unidentifiable “spot” in my brain.  

The lymph node could be a reaction to the medication (i.e., “reactive progression”, meaning that this is reacting to the meds and can look bigger for a while before decreasing) or it can be a metastatic lymph node. It’s too early to know.

As for my brain, no one knows what this “spot” is.  The docs are sure it’s not cancer and it certainly isn’t following the pattern of stroke as previously thought.  They have no idea what this might be and have chosen to follow it every three months. 

Time will tell.  I continue hoping that grace fills the spaces between appointments, scans and procedures and the changes that happen between events will continue to move toward healing. 

A poem entitled “The Call of Abraham” written by Kilian McDonnell, OSB (which I have included at the end) has been a favorite reflection of mine for years.

God asks Abraham to leave everyone and everything behind as he beckons him to move to an unknown land.

I suspect that “leaving behind” includes old ideas, attitudes, identities, behaviors, ways of thinking and anything else that’s not needed.  Abraham is not a fan of this idea. 

I have always liked this poem but find the last line to be one of the best. 

After Abraham’s litany of complaints,  McDonnell writes/imagines his response to God:

“You come late, Lord, very late, but my camels leave in the morning.”

Over the last eight months, I have come to understand some of Abraham’s story to be my own.

There is a reluctance in me to leave my good friends, Chris and Paula, their families and friends who have so generously cared for me and brought me back from the dark side to a place of health.

Abraham became a “gypsy” of sorts, and so have I.  Because the meds and I seem to be getting along and my scans have shown improvement, I’m able to travel back and forth to Boston once a month.

My camels are ready to go. 

I must admit that I rented a caravan of camels to haul all the “goods” I acquired during my late-night shopping sprees when I was taking Prednisone.  It seems I have trouble leaving things behind!

Perhaps I can enter the Virginia City Camel Races??….my “gang” and I should be there just in time!

I know and believe the “good news” I have received from these scans and my doctor’s conclusions are not coincidental, but rather are the results of all the thoughts, cards, prayers, Masses and heartfelt notes that all of you have faithfully and continuously sent my way.

I hope and pray you know of my deep gratitude to each of you. 

If you ever need a camel, I can sell you one real cheap!

Blessings and thanks to all of you.

Love ya, ga

THE CALL OF ABRAHAM

(“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country.’”Genesis 12:1)

Talk about imperious.

Without a “may I presume?”

No previous contact,

no letter of introduction,

this unknown God

issues edicts.

This is not a conversation.

Am I a nobody

to receive decrees

from one whose name

I do not know?

I have worshipped my own god

To you I had addressed no prayers,

but quick,

like sudden fire in the desert,

I hear, “Go.”

At seventy-five,

am I supposed to scuttle my life,

take that ancient wasteland, Sarai,

place my arthritic bones 

upon the road

to some mumbled nowhere?

Let me get this straight.

I will be brief.

I summarize.

In ten generations since the Flood

you have spoken to no one.

Now, like thunder on a clear day,

you give commands:

pull up my tent,

desert the graves of my ancestors,

leave Haran

for a country you do not name,

there to be a stranger.

God of the wilderness,

from two desiccated lumps,

from two parched prunes,

you promise all peoples of the earth

will be blessed in me.

You come late, Lord, very late,

But my camels leave in the morning.

…..Kilian McDonnell, OSB

Swift Lord, You Are Not