Balancing Hope with the Harshest Reality...

In the world of inoperable pancreatic cancer, there is the hard walk of balancing Hope with the harsh reality of a terminal diagnosis...

And how do you ever find your footing, let alone Hope, when this diagnosis causes such devastating anguish?  It's just too hard...

Yes.  We've been there.  Tears and sorrow and anger and grief... they all vied for top billing during those initial dark days and weeks.

It was mom who pulled it together and lead us all to a place of life and joy and hope.  One of her favorite quotes was from the Olympic skater, Apolo Anton Ohno,

"Winning does not always mean coming in first... real victory is in arriving at the finish line with no regrets because you know you've gone all out."

Yes... we wanted to win... desperately!  For us, winning meant bringing mom through the other side of this fight a cancer survivor.   But "winning" began to take on a different shape as Mom determined to live her one life with no regrets, to go all out... in love, in action, in mercy, in grace.

These became our defining moments during her year long battle with pancreatic cancer.  And yes, choosing to live completely sold out to the people we cherished most, offered a truer Hope than I could have ever imagined.

Whatever you are going through this night... whether it is a test of love or faith, a challenge named cancer, or divorce; the misery of a child lost to addiction, the harsh reality of financial despair...

Whatever it is, may you turn your face to the Light and find Hope carved out of the Devastation... it is there.  He is there.  Learning to trust with the Psalmist,  "Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.  Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken." Psalm 62:5-6

It is the only way to balance Hope in the midst of the Harshest Reality.

Resting in Grace tonight,
My Love, Always,
                                           Jane