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You Have a Choice
You Can Either Enjoy Life, or Not.
Life is good. Notice I wrote that as a statement, rather than a question. Life is also hard, frustrating, lonely, scary, and a whole bunch of other things. Still, life is good, if you choose to make it good.
I’ve had my share of hard times, like everyone else. I’ve struggled, I’ve cried, I’ve yelled, and I’ve stewed. However, I don’t get stuck there. My mother-in-law has terminal cancer. She turns 94 next month, and she’s tired. Sometimes, she has a really bad day or week, but we have a deal. If either of us gets mopey or overwhelmed, we give each other the day — two at the most — before we hold each other accountable for pulling ourselves out of that frame of mind.
It works pretty well, most of the time. She changed to a different type of chemotherapy last week, and it was a little rough. She had tolerated the first kind really well, losing her hair and feeling tired, but otherwise, there were no other side effects, thank God. They had to change it, because she started getting nerve damage in her feet.
Someone asked her the other day how long she had left to take chemo, and she answered for the rest of her life or until it stopped keeping the cancer in check. She knows there isn’t a cure for her, and she’s okay with that. She’s tired and wants to go home, reunite with her…