Tag Archives: happiness

Spiritual, Thoughts

Letters to God – Part 28: Celebrate the Good Things

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Today I was scolded by one of my friends, because I didn’t write about the good news that we had last week. And she is right! It’s so much easier to delve in the bad news, in the pain, the indecision. Why is this? Why are the positive thoughts drowned so fast by the negative ones?

Anyway, to our point. Live has been really good for the past half year (the last time I wrote was in November, so yes, almost half a year. How time flies), between MRI and MRI we had an awesome trip to Orlando and Miami with many lifelong experiences, my son kept going to school, living life, and in general doing great. The doctors kept on looking inside his head and telling us to start treating, but we decided to wait an give him the best we could (both physically and emotionally).

And last month MRI time came again, and somehow our instincts broke down and we let our brains decide to start treatment. Looking back at this decision, I’m not sure why we took it other than that – breaking under the constant pressure of our doctors (the many different ones that we consult all the time). Not that they are wrong. Nobody is right or wrong here – that is the biggest problem in our case. It’s all a matter of opinion. So with our heads down and our hearts broken, we returned to the weekly chemo schedule.

But you still had a surprise for us…

We always send the MRIs overseas to get a second opinion from one of the world’s experts in the subject, and we did the same this time. But we didn’t wait for him to answer. And after doing the second round, their recommendation came back: Do Not Treat.

WHAT???

Shock. Joy. Confusion. Why do they recommend this? Why didn’t we wait for their answer before starting treatment?

We felt as in the story of Abraham and Isaac. We took our child to the altar, bound him, and were ready to sacrifice him… and then God came and said “OK, no need for you to do this. I see you will do what is needed when needed, so untie your son and continue with your life” [I’m paraphrasing here, obviously].

So we are back to our “normal” life, happy to be back here. And trying to remember every day that we have to celebrate every breath we take, the small things in life, just being alive together. And not taking the good things for granted. Celebrating every day.

Spiritual

Letters to God – Part 15: Stuff

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(This post was supposed to go out last Thursday, but as usual – you can plan and plan, but you never know how things will turn out)

Today is a good day. Well, every day we are alive is a good day, isn’t it? But today is even better.

Today we were thrown out of the rehabilitation hospital. OK, we didn’t get thrown out, but my son is in a very stable state and doesn’t need the extra night-care that is given at the hospital. Since we live relatively close to the hospital (that is, one hour drive), and there are other kids that have more need for his bed, the head doctor asked us if we minded moving to daily hospitalization. After some thoughts, weighting the pros and cons, the fears and more fears, we decided to jump to the opportunity.

So my wife started packing all of the stuff we had accumulated during our 4 months of hospitalization: toys, books, soap, shampoo, body lotions, more toys, food just in case we got hungry in the middle of the night or if our son didn’t like the food in the cafeteria, detergent, more toys, coffee and tea, more toys. It ended like this:

Stuff

(and this was in a hospital room with another kid in the same room)

This made me think how much we cling to all of the “stuff” that we have. It wasn’t like we didn’t go home each weekend, or had the opportunity to jump home almost each day. And the supermarket was just a block around…

We just need all of this stuff to feel secure, like we are in a comfortable place because we are surrounded by things that are ours. Stuff gives us a sense of security.

But on the other hand, it weights us down. If we want to move, we need to take all of the stuff with us. We have gotten used to it. Packing it all takes time, effort, and LOTS of space. And then it makes us slower, weighting us down. And it’s not only a physical burden, it also weights on our brains. Do we have this and that? Do we need more? What are we missing?

It takes great courage to live with less stuff. Stuff does not create certainty in life, as I know firsthand. It creates a false sense of security that can break in one second, and all you are left with is… just stuff.

So live experiences and have a good time. These are memories that last forever. Stuff just comes and goes.

P.S. my wife will surely say that I need to start practicing what I teach 🙂