Good morning! Another beautiful day in the area, although 30 degrees colder than the last post!

I can’t believe how good life is to me. It’s a couple of weeks over a year since the transplant and nary a problem. OK, my stomach looks like a lumpy bed (I tried to get them to give me liposuction and one of those six-pack abs things, but no) and the whole area is still numb, but that’s not exactly a complaint, is it? I’ll be 58 at the end of the month, and not exactly posing for swimsuit ads

When last I wrote, I was looking toward the time that I would return to the workforce. But my doctor has been working with me to accept remaining on total disability, since he’s betting on a time when the cancer would return, or some other event. How cheery!

That said, it was the same day that I was praying for discernment in other areas, and I realized that would free me to spend the rest of my time in volunteer-ism. Prayer asked, prayer answered! Members of my congregation, and my pastor (the Rev. Gina Walsh-Minor, a strong and faithful woman, and a God-send to me) have been encouraging me to stop saying “no” and consider the permanent diaconate. I feel like a child kicking and screaming when indeed the parents are simply trying to get him into the car to go get ice cream.

[side note: my atheistic spell-checker refuses to recognize the word diaconate]

So again, life is good. My mother is 86 years old and very healthy, and still maintains the large home in which I grew up all by herself. Dad passed 3 years ago of acute myelogenous leukemia; he was 85 at the time. He had been an athletic man all his life until the final year; oddly, I think he was spared “old age” … he got tired in June, diagnosed 3 weeks late, then a quick, quiet and painless slide toward death a couple weeks past his birthday. The final weeks were spent at home with many visitors. Mom and I were at his side when he passed at 3 PM; other than a brief spasm at the end, he was lucid and without morphine. I guess it’s very Italian of us, but a few hours later we looked at each other and said, “Are you hungry?” And it was off to a restaurant to celebrate his life. He would have wanted nothing less. And, different than many senior funerals, the joint was packed to the brim with friends and relatives. A full life indeed.

Anyway, that’s most of the news. I’m active in AA, and even enjoy the “history” angle of seeing Sam Shoemaker commemorated recently in Holy Women, Holy Men as a “co-founder of AA” due to his work in the Oxford Movement.

I hope the weather out your way is getting warmer … I have “in-laws” in Oconto Falls, and found the area quite lovely.

Stay well!