Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Time and Tide

And te tide and te time þat tu iboren were, schal beon iblescet.

- St. Marher, poem in Middle English, 1225 A. D
Time and tide wait for no man. This is an old saying, very old. So old that the first recorded use was in Middle English, that half-German, half-French, half-English ancestor of our current tongue.

We went with Dad to the doctor yesterday. I wish that the prognosis were better. We hope for a victory, but even a delaying battle is of infinite value.

These moments bring the entirety of the human condition into sharp focus.
If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say?

And why are you waiting?

- Stephen Levine



Every day is a gift. What would you do with it?

9 comments:

  1. I think I know where you are on this.

    And why are you waiting?

    Indeed.

    I lost my own dad after his 10 year roller coaster of cancer, 28 years ago next week. Never really cured, never really over it, just on a long roller coaster of remissions and recurrences with a relentless downhill slope.

    13 years ago, my wife had breast cancer. After a "hell year" she was cured and has never had a hint of a recurrence. Along the way, we've lost too, too many friends.

    Prayers for you and your family.

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  2. My mother doesn't have cancer, but she has a progressively worse cardiac problem. At her age any treatment would not only not make her better, but likely would kill her.

    We don't know how much time she has left, but we're doing everything possible to make sure that every minute possible is good time.

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  3. Lost both of my folks to cancer.

    You are in our thoughts and prayers.

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  4. Lost my dad back in late 2005 to cancer, after a long fight in and out of remission. I know where you're head is at in this. Best luck and wishes to both of you during this time.

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  5. You are in my prayers. We don't savor enough and we rush past so much. If was only when I lost most everything I cared about that I realized that. Hard lessons yet they make us hold on to what is left, beloved things we might have otherwise overlooked.

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  6. Borepatch,

    You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

    All of us are delaying. The is a clearing at the end of the trail for each, and it is a certain part of the journey. For me, that thought has helped me to gain perspective.

    ASM826

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  7. And you know who to call if you need some recoil therapy, right?

    Best wishes going out to you and yours, BP.

    Right now, Mrs. G.'s mom is facing her third cancer surgery. She's beaten breast cancer and skin cancer, but the treatments have taken their toll.

    It's not the same, but analogous. We're at the age where it's no longer our grandparents passing away, people we've always known as old(er) folks; but our parents, people we've known since they were young and vibrant.

    Kinda like we are right now.

    Life is a sexually transmitted, terminal condition...

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