Wonder-filled Wednesday

I wish I could cut it and paste it here. But please, please, please, go see THIS and tell Kristin how awesome she is. Tell her how beautiful her art is and how beautiful her heart is.

Tonight I taught the second of a three class series called, "Religion and Joy." I wrote tonight's class on "The things that steal our joy and how our faith, our 'religion' can restore our joy" on Monday afternoon - the day before receiving the diagnosis. Tonight, I told the class what is happening in my life and how I stand confident that my faith (along with medicine, surgery, love, and really good food) will help me sustain my joy and how, even when moss grows on The Rock on which I stand and I slip into the murky, churning rough waters of this messy life, I will climb back onto the rock and cling to it with all I've got, with all I can muster. Joy unspeakable. Wordless, speechless joy. (And a whole lot of "this sucks" thrown in there too.) They listened, they asked questions, they shared their stories, and they promised to pray for me and my family. Together, we can be a community of faith, of love, of wonder, and of joy. What else do we have to live for? What else matters?

Emails. Texts. Phone calls. Facebook messages. Voice mail. Someone brought me dinner tonight, even as she toted her one month old son with her. (I'm supposed to be cooking for you, Heather!) Somebody tied a red heart to my mailbox today. (I don't know who did it - but I love you.) I am bewildered, buoyed, and eternally grateful for the support and love that has been poured out and today is only Day One.

I feel enormously, deeply, life-affirmingly (I think I just made up a word!) loved tonight.

Your love, your prayers, your faith, your presence sustain and support me.

Thank you all.