Who Makes Plans for the Future???
I guess as the birthdays pile up (at least it feels that way sometimes) we start to look forward, differently than when we were just starting out in life. Hopes and dreams were different then. Hopes and dreams were REALLY different once cancer took a bow in our lives.
Our plans before cancer included the hope of moving back to the west coast and that would have cut in-half the time it would take to get to Maui!! Work would turn into reaching out and helping others. Leroy’s years in covering conflict would have been a map that would have pulled him back to the places that changed him the most. The places where he saw human suffering so devastating, he made a promise to himself to return some day and make a difference in those countries.
We all make these kinds of plans and many of us live to see them unfold as we phase in and out of the layers of life. It’s supposed to be that way.
But when something like cancer bore’s a hole through this planning page, it’s hard to start the process over again.
A friend of mine was talking today about her five year plan. A FIVE YEAR PLAN!! I don’t look that far down the road any more….there are too many blind curves for me to go there.
I guess once you’ve been hit broadside, the luxury of looking at the future becomes limited to tomorrow; five year plans just aren’t part of the play book any longer.
Who makes plans for that kind of future?
November 30, 2012 @ 8:22 am
I read your pstoing and was jealous
November 18, 2012 @ 10:44 pm
We cannot predict future but we can change are faith for future. All hopes must still run in our life despite diagnose. Faith can still change everything.
November 16, 2012 @ 10:07 pm
I think we all see that long term planning is not what we once thought it was. I listen to co-workers talking about how many years they have to retirement, what their benefits will pay them and what they are going to do and I bite my tongue because I had plans once upon a time. It did not include being alone…it included growing old with Jim and really enjoying our lives. I try not to let the bitterness eat away at me but it’s so unfair. I feel like we have all been robbed. I can’t even figure out how to let this experience lead me to make a difference in some way. I admire you Laurie for all you do at Hopkins and I hope someday I can find an outlet.
November 30, 2012 @ 7:53 am
You ralley found a way to make this whole process easier.
November 16, 2012 @ 7:36 pm
One day at a time…….that’s about all I can handle. After living in cancer world, I realize how ones life can change drastically in just one day ! …………….as always, still lifting……
November 16, 2012 @ 7:19 pm
Used to think in grandiose terms of planning…5 years, 10 years. Now 5 days is a long time and I’m glad to reach the 5th day. Oh sure, I think about “what if” and it is uplifting to think that way (dreams) but life often intrudes and causes an adjustment. My cancer seems to be quiet at the moment and that is good and I am grateful. Now I have other issues….I need orthroscopic surgery on my left knee…can hardly walk, putting on my socks and shoes would make a Saturday Night Live skit, can’t bend my knee to get into the car so I slide over into the passenger seat and drag it into the car. I am hopeful that the surgery will get rid of the pain and enable me to walk somewhat normally again. Once I heal from this, my left hip is bone-on-bone so hip replacement will soon follow. My response is Good Grief!!! Am I falling apart or what? Falling apart is the answer. I remain hopeful that things will return to my new normal and I’ll be able to function without a walker or cane, at least for now. My hip doctor is the same age as my son….when and how did I get so old. Living life is the answer! In spite of the difficulties and pain, I am still very blessed. I occasionally like to whine and complain so this is the time for that. Surgery is not a problem..I’m asleep…good drugs. Recovery is difficult and painful and long but it is doable….I’ve walked this road many times so I know what to expect. Maybe by June 2013 I’ll be refurbished…putting new parts in an old body. That’s my plan….in months not years but longer than 5 days.
November 30, 2012 @ 2:18 pm
I thought fidning this would be so arduous but it’s a breeze!