A Show of Cards

I was cleaning out the file cabinet -how long has it been, I wondered? - there are things in it dating back to the Middle Ages (my children's middle ages). Anyway in it was the most amazing letter. Most everything from the cabinet seemed to be old pay stubs and insurances I no longer have and it was in the heaping shred-it pile. But I was wrong.

I came across a letter from a high school friend with three young children and a loving husband and every reason in the world not to be dying of cancer in her 40s, but she was. She had been fighting it for nearly a decade, on two continents, a particularly elusive strain that was beaten back only to appear somewhere else and attack on another front.

This letter described the hospital ordeal of an MRI, EKG, Contrast, and Gamma Knife treatment, among other things, and her hope that the trial drug she has been on was working. These are her closing remarks:

"In the midst of the strongest faith I have ever known in my life, what I really need is Jesus Christ Himself to walk into the room and say, 'Oh there you are, I've been looking all over hell and gone for you,' and then lay his hands on me and this endless ordeal is over at last and to the good.

"This is where life is like poker: you play the hand you were dealt the best way you know how, and you don't fall apart like a big baby if you lose. You take heart knowing, somewhere, there's a place where they make lots and lots of new chips, and other people are going to be playing the game for a long time to come. And there's an outside chance you might get asked back to play. "

Taking the high road is inspiring because of its rarity, to witness someone who loves others to push themselves beyond what they think they can physically endure. I will never forget feeling her faith and courage as she fought and fell back, fought and fell back. It strengthen me now, like an invisible touchstone of spirit, one to another, as she passes the best of herself along.