Finishing 2021 Strong

We have a few hours before the New Year rings in... just enough time to look back, and look up!

Take a moment to focus on the good that 2021 has brought.

     * Cancer may be in your center view this year, but it is not the default!

Make a list of your accomplishments and goals met.

     * Allow your mind to travel back these past 365 days and find the moments, big and small, worthy of celebration!

Practice Gratitude for the gifts of 2021.

     * Thank God for every instance (those moments, big and small) where God was faithful to you this year.

Believe that God is in control, even when the world feels out of control.

     * Especially when our world feels out of control!

Hold on to the Truth that God is for you.

     * God is so good.  God loves you.  And God is always for you.  Always.

Make room for next year.  And Dream about the possibilities.

     * There is no holding back the Blessings of God to those who believe...

"God can do anything, you know, far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!  He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us."

                                              ~ Ephesians 3:20-21 (The Message)

Believing together that God will do exceedingly and abundantly more than we can ask or imagine in the coming year!

Putting 2021 to bed and looking with Hope to 2022! 

My Love, Always,
Jane

When Days Become Years...

 Grief.  It is such a strange thing.  

We each travel our own road, but the triggers that sear our hearts are universal when it comes to navigating the heartbreaking minefields of loss. 

A favorite meal, a scent that was theirs.

The first Birthday without them.  Every ensuing birthday without them.

Holidays... and Anniversaries... the first year of their passing.  The first Christmas table with the empty chair.  The days flowing into years...

And just like that...10 years have passed.  How is that possible??

December 4, 2011.

The day pancreatic cancer won.  I never thought our hearts would heal.

And perhaps healing isn't the right word.  Maybe it's more of a learning to ride the waves of sorrow and learning to hold the grief loosely.  Allowing joy to take up residence in hearts that were battered and bruised but still beating.

And the years brought blessings and love in new ways, in sweet ways, but the grief has always been there.  And sometimes, some days, like the marking of 10 years, the grief swamps.

So, we chose to commemorate.  It's not a celebration really, but a time of remembrance.

For us, it meant a time of travel.  Following the advice Mom gave us so often... a bit of legacy living for sure...

So, we took that great advice and went out and did the things!  We have traveled and wandered ourselves into some grand adventures over the years, but this year, this anniversary was a tough one.

Good friends planned a getaway that was balm to our hurting hearts.  A camping trip deep into the rugged beauty of Big Bend National Park!

We have wanted to visit for years... this was the perfect time.

We hiked and explored the days away and star-gazed late into the nights.
It was bliss!

The vast and desolate landscape of this historic national treasure gave us room to breath and space to remember all the good in our lives.  

Grief has a way of turning us inward, darkening our thoughts and shuttering our hearts.

Remembering the good in our lives opened us up to the joy and grace and the blessing that have always been ours.

And it wasn't long before the smiles followed...

Under that amazing west Texas sky we took stock of the things we've learned these past 10 years...

the list is refreshingly short!

We are small, so very, very small.

But God is so Big!

Our hearts can break.
But they can love powerfully deep.

Wandering is good.  And adventures are great...
But coming home is Best!

At the end of our grand adventure, it was so good to turn down our dirt road towards home.  The satisfying crunch of gravel beneath our tires, the familiar sway of our big old oak trees, and that beautiful log home waiting at the end of our drive...they all sang a welcome home that gave our souls rest.

And it occurs to me that at the end of this life, the moment God calls us each heavenward, we will feel that same sense of peace and rightness as we turn our face and hearts towards Home.  The newborn babe we celebrate this Christmas season... the Christ child who came to triumph over the grave... He will lead us by the hand to a welcome home we can only imagine!

So, my prayer for you this year... Hope and Peace for whatever road you might be traveling.  May you always know that we count it such a Blessing and Privilege to be on this journey together, walking each other home with an abiding love and joy.

It is His Grace that sets Heaven in our Hearts,

My Love, Always,

Jane

Don't Quit...

 He was a boxer long before he was a politician.

And that fighting spirit took him toe to toe with a formidable diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in 2017.

Harry Reid passed away yesterday at the age of 82... 4 years after that devastating diagnosis.

We are remembering him, and holding his family up in prayer today.  Loss is always hard, but never more so than during the holiday season...

Praying Grace and Comfort over all who are struggling with grief and heartbreak this day,

Always,

Jane

O Holy NIght!

The sweetest gift is given,
a love big enough to save the world,

and strong enough to hold us safe...

all bundled up in this tiny babe.

Graced to be held in His Love this Holy Night!

When Cancer Comes in the Dark

 The story Janie shares touches a chord deep... She is a girl who knows how cancer can take you to a dark place.  Her words capture what it means to be held captive there, scratching your way to the light and beseeching God to come near, choosing Thankfulness for the God who stays no matter how many times we send Him away.

You may know Janie by her stage name, Nightbirde.  We saw her first on America's Got Talent...

 Her song, "It's Ok," traced the journey of a life interrupted by cancer, the most brutal of diagnoses... tumors bruising her body, the painful days transformed by her lilting, etheral voice into a tribute of beauty and joy.

On her website, Janie shares her heart, honest and vulnerable:

"A line from my favorite poem says this: 

“There’ll be days like this, my mama said,

When you open your hands to catch, 

And wind up with only blisters and bruises.

. . .

When your boots fill with rain,

and you’ll be up to your knees in disappointment.

And those are the very days you have all the more reason to say thank you

Because there’s nothing more beautiful 

than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, 

no matter how many times it is sent away.

I haven’t come as far as I’d like, in understanding the things that have happened this year. But here’s one thing I do know: when it comes to pain, God isn’t often in the business of taking it away. Instead, he adds to it. He is more of a giver than a taker. He doesn’t take away my darkness, he adds light. He doesn’t spare me of thirst, he brings water. He doesn’t cure my loneliness, he comes near. So why do we believe that when we are in pain, it must mean God is far? 

In the beginning, there was immense, immeasurable emptiness. But God was drawn to it like a fog to the sea. He stretched out His spirit over the void, and He stayed. If the stories I’ve heard of Him are true, surely He is nearest of all, to me. To us. You see, the Creator is still here, where He has always been, hovering over the emptiness."  ~ Janie

Janie's words are soft and sure, beautiful and filled with promise. And most of all, they are a truth when our souls are hollowed out and hungry for answers...

No matter the hard, no matter the pain, no matter the hurt... He stayed.

God stayed. And that makes all the difference in the world!

Blessed with Hope tonight, My Love Always, Jane

Moving Heaven and Earth to Find a Cure!

 Meet Dr. William Freed-Pastor, M.D., Ph.D.

His team is researching a new, potentially exciting treatment for pancreatic cancer patients.  It is a Triple Immunotherapy treatment that you can read about here.

In a nutshell, Dr. Freed-Pastor has combined 3 drugs that hit the pancreatic cancer tumor hard.  The drugs are a combination of antibodies and checkpoint inhibitors.

The therapy works in concert to activate a patient's T-cells and drive them into the tumors to shut down the cancer cell growth.  And this would be the easy-peasy explanation... because the long version kinda gets complicated ;-)  Read all the scientific/research details here and even more details here!

The Triple Immunotherapy treatment is not yet widely available, but has entered the clinical trial stage and Dr. Freed-Pastor's team is excited about the possibilities.  Yet he is cautious to remind us that they don't know yet how this drug combination will transition from the mouse models to the human patients.

Dr. Freed-Pastor understands the urgency for viable pancreatic cancer treatments as he lost his mom to the disease as a young boy...

"Family members are looking for options.  Patients are looking for options.  I understand the need.  I lost my mom to pancreatic cancer when I was a kid.  So I know that people will try to move heaven and earth to find better options for those they love."

So thankful for Doctors like Dr. Freed-Pastor!  We are joining with him and all the pancreatic cancer patients and their loved ones moving heaven and earth to find a cure!

My Love, Always,
Jane

Trusting God when it's Dark...

 I don't know who might need to see this, but...

Sleep in peace tonight,

God is in Control.

Be The Light

 

Personal Update...

 This is a month I never wish to repeat.

C*vid finally made a house call, despite all our mask-wearing, social-distancing precautions...

Thankfully I am doing well now, but it knocked me down and out for the last few weeks.  And just for the curious, mine was not a normal case (is there such a thing?)  I truly thought I had a severe case of food poisoning!

I will spare you the details, but the gastric distress was immediate and abundant... within days I was in the ER dehydrated, unable to even keep water down.  Not Fun!  But there was no respiratory involvement, no shortness of breath, no high fever, no cough and no congestion... for this I am so thankful.

And even more thankful that my case was isolated.  No one else in the family was affected.  So, so thankful.

We were surrounded by the prayers of so many.  Meals were brought and left on our truck's tailgate, uplifting texts and cards encouraged us, and one intrepid and loving daughter braved the quarantine and dove into the midst of the sickness to help and love us.

So very, very Thankful.

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