People who need People

When  you open yourself up to the universe, even at the risk of getting hurt what comes back to you can be glorious! Even with cancer my cup runneth over with love and joy at how as people we connect...there are reasons paths cross and people collide with each others lives.

Wednesday while waiting for a friends test to be finished at the hospital my cell phone rings and it's pre-operation/pre testing wanting to up date my current info and update my health records, I could only find one small area where I could get a good phone signal and a chair...this conversation took 23 minutes of my health history in a nutshell...I could see an older woman trying to read but also listening in on my phone conversation...when the call was over she informed me that she too is a BC Survivor but now at 4 years into it, it has returned and is all through her bones already...not a happy ending....we shared our stories, exchanged first names and both said we would pray for one another...Helen gave me the gift of knowing that my news about my reoccurrence was not as bad as hers....again proving that someone always has it rougher than you at any given moment...gives you instant and amazing perspective.

My Second blessing that came to me that day was after finishing up at the hospital, my friend and I decided pancakes were in order, we go to a pancake house that neither one of us has been to before.(do you feel another collision of lives coming together for a purpose yet??) The hostess who is again older than myself seats us and my friend asks where the restrooms are located....(me the one with new hair growing in, her on the oxygen tank) As my friend walks away the hostess asks if she can know just what our illnesses are...me being the open book tells her that I have cancer that apparently wasn't kicked and has now spread to my right lung and my GF has Pulmonary Fibrosis.

She asks if I am a religious person, I tell her no, but that I am a very spiritual person, she asks if I knew who Pope John Paul the Second was, I nod...she then tells me that before he became gravely ill he blessed (with Holy Water) a large amount of medals and people that have been praying to him with those medals have been healed, blessed, given what they were looking for as far as jobs, spouses....whatever they prayed for and now Pope John Paul is being considered for Sainthood....She then tells me she has been given a small number of these medals and this is the point that I ask her if there is anyway I could just hold one for a moment....

She tells me," No, Dolly I want you to have it, one for you and one for you friend!' and precedes to go to her purse to bring them to my table, now my friend returns from the bathroom and see's me quite moved and I explain quickly to her what had just taken place and I tell her do you see that how when you open yourself up to people how people respond and wonderful things  are shown to you...bestowed to you! The Hostess places a medal into both of our hands and while she is asking our names and full diagnosis to add us to the Catholic order of Nuns to pray for us monthly...I don't realize how tightly I am holding this medal until my hand starts to bleed because of my own fingernails digging into my skin...I was so moved that a total stranger cared enough about another total stranger to try and find a way to bring peace to my life.

The power of people helping people always amazes me and humbles me at the same time and I always try and stay open to all possibilities and find out just what encounters with total strangers are to bring to one another. Will this medal heal me? I have no idea.....but the peace just holding that medal in my hand brings me washes over my heart and my soul....whatever my outcome, I have had a very blessed life and I am thankful!