Today, I’m celebrating an anniversary of sorts. Seven years ago today, I started a blog because had just been diagnosed with the “incurable” disease of Follicular B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. I wanted to let my friends and family know what was going on and my feelings. That blog was on Blogger. I moved it to my site and you can still read it, but because the entries are in date descending order, it is a little difficult to read. So I spent some time and rearranged the text and put it in story-form. I have saved it in a pdf that you can read: Dick Donohue – My Lymphoma Story.pdf I try to re-read my own story every year because it helps me to realize what an incredible move of God I was experiencing.
Today, I am still cancer-free, due to the grace of God and the prayers of friends and family. So once again, I say thank you to God because I know that only God can cure incurable forms of cancer. And I say thank you to all the friends and family that prayed for me – you know who you are. I owe the last seven years of my life, in part, to you.
God bless us, every one.
It always makes me reflect on why God would go to the trouble of making leaves so pretty before they die. I mean, it seems like it would have been easier to just drop the leaves without changing color; or maybe just take all the color out if them: let the leaves turn gray or black as death and let them drop to the ground.
I think that God is constantly trying talk to us. I think that He wants to guide us. The tough part is finding time alone where life is quiet enough to hear him. One of the more successful ways for me to do that is to go fly a kite. I really enjoy flying kites. The kites I fly are “stunt kites” which basically means that they have two lines instead of one. That means that you can make them do loop-de-loops, dives, and all kinds of fun maneuvers. The bottom line is that you have a lot more control over the kite. And — I’ll admit it — I have control issues. Today, I had the day to myself and nobody to remind me of all my responsibilities and grown-up issues. So I took the time to go fly my kite. And I think God used that time to talk to me…