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 |   My journey through (and beyond) the valley with Cancer as my companion. |
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Dear Friend: This is not a Blog about writing! (I already have one of those.) This is a blog about a journey I am taking with illness. I have recently been diagnosed with Cancer. My goal is honest therapy as I progress through, and beyond this new reality in my life. I hope that, somewhere along the way you will find some words that will help you too. While this is, in fact, an interactive Blog, I hope that you will scroll slowly down this page. For you see, the front of this Blog IS my journey. The entries are conversations that are held along the journey.Yes, there is a lot on it--before actually getting to the Blog entries. But, I hope that by the objects and words which appear before the Blog itself, you might come to understand just a little bit about me, and my journey, and some truly amazing friends who have agreed to journey with me. I hope that you, too, will choose to accompany me on my walk--through the Valley. I invite you to join me, and discover the wondrous truths, meet some truly amazing people, and share those "memorable" moments this journey will undoubtedly present. Come along, won't you? In His Care, ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Would you like to help me help others? I found this amazing organization, and I am proud to be a sponsor. I hope you will check it out. It's called The Network For Good.  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "RISUS OMNIA - INCRUMENTUS PER DEDECUS - SAPIENTIA PER DAMNUM" ("Every thing is funny - Growth through humiliation - Wisdom through loss") ~Leunig~ The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse. ~Helen Keller~ "If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people." ~Virginia Woolf~ ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "There is strength in truth." ~The Barton Family Crest~ ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” — Helen Keller, American social activist, public speaker and author (1880-1968) I have moved the list of my thanks for those who have helped to make this little Blog so very special. I hope that you will take a moment to read the list, growing every day, and let these fellow travellers along this journey know that you appreciate the contributions they make to our walk together.
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please feel free to click on the Blog Rings icon below to be transported to some of the very best of the Best Bloggers around WDC. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** If you are new to WDC, or to our Blogging community, I highly recommend the monthly edition of "The Blogville News". Feel free to click below, and let Scarlett   know that a Blogger sent ya!Hey! We've started a Christian's Blog Ring on WDC. Click on the logo, and join us! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Budroe
 Ring LeaderI have three publications at the moment. Here is a link to purchase my latest one. Buy a great read, and help a fellow writer out, Okay?  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| I come to this place every day. I find something here, every day to be thankful for. Perhaps it's a new follower along the journey, or a friend leaving a kindness footprint. A few years ago, I wrote an essay about Thanksgiving. You can find it, should you wish, here:
There have been quite a few visitors to this writing, and many reviews, most of which were encouraging and kind. I thought I might share with you the story today of how the piece came to be written. You may well note the essay was written in 2009. It actually had its genesis in 2005. I was living in Clarksville, Indiana at the time. I was happily ensconced in the midst of a truck driving career that was soon to come to a voluntary end in 2006. On this particular day, the essay found it's genesis in a truck stop in a place where cooking food went hand in hand with breathing. Strangely, but quite descriptively, the Pioneer Truck Stop was (and I do sincerely hope, still is) located in New Berlin, Wisconsin. Truck drivers have this knack of finding the very best places to eat. PROTIP: If you ever find yourself looking for really GREAT food, check out the parking lot for big trucks. Every one you see is a Gold Star Review! I was in the habit of working holidays as a trucker. I was single, and roamed the highways and byways of North America sometimes for months at a time. I was as snug as the proverbial bug, you see. Fellow drivers for my company often had great difficulty getting these days off to be with their families. If my driving meant a compatriot could be home with spouse and offspring, family and friends, I was more than happy to be motoring. It was always a very special gift that could be given to someone who really needed one, and it was always anonymous. About June, I would innocently ask around to see if there was a driver, or if anyone knew of a driver that could really use a holiday at home. I could get it "fixed" to make sure they got home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, a birthday, or anniversary; you get the picture. On this particular Thanksgiving, I had the unfortunate (for me) situation where I was parked outside the official home of the Green Bay Packers,Lambeau Field that is. Wisconsin. Green Bay, Wisconsin. Cheesetown, USA. According to my "plan", I was supposed to be met there at 5 AM to be offloaded. You know, before the craziness was to begin. The "plan" didn't quite happen that way, and the load of broadcasting equipment I had brought turned out to be, in fact, backup equipment for some possible case of emergency. I didn't mind too much, except that there were all these people packing themselves like sardines into the Thanksgiving Day football frenzy. Gazillions O' Folk. It really was a party atmosphere. That was really strange for me, because it was like -100C in the place, the wind was blowing trash, broken limbs, unwanted children...all over the place! Cold it was. Originally, the equipment was to be dropped at Lambeau's staff parking lot. I (or someone else) would come back the following day, after the load was re-loaded into the trailer, and it would then go to the next assigned place. The equipment manager for the national broadcasting company airing the game that day and I had some fellowship about the unseemliness of offloading, and reloading equipment that wasn't going to be used that day. Listen, this was a plum assignment. Drivers get paid by the mile, and sometimes you could get into a "loop" where you basically followed the load around the country for a while. Imagine the miles equipment for some national broadcasting company could spin up over a few weeks (or months, thus the reason I would stay out for longer periods than other drivers!) following the talking heads from one venue to another. I didn't want to lose this opportunity. It was embarrassingly good money. I wanted a particular new car badly. Win/Win. Right? So I got to sit in the broadcast booth for the game! Now, to a football fan I gotta tell ya...heaven! At 5 PM, I learned the next destination. My trip was paid for. I got to see the game, IN the booth. Truckers usually drove about 700-750 miles a day. At somewhere between $0.50 and $2.50 per mile, a 2,000 mile trip was not even average! Next stop? San Diego! Usually a three day trip, easy going! I had five! Thus endeth it, the back story. I make it out of Green Bay about 7 PM. I make it as far as New Berlin, and I had already decided that I would be eating dinner at the Pioneer. Of course, at this late time, at the tail end of Thanksgiving, I didn't really hold out much hope for traditional Turkey Day fixin's, and sleep was beginning to sound pretty good to me. Into the Pioneer I pulled. Things were looking dim; there were only three other trucks there. For this place? Not good news. I shut down, and went to see if the door was open. It was. In I went. There were a lot of people in the restaurant, so I guessed they must be locals in for a snack, and maybe some Pumpkin Pie. I even saw a friend in the place, eating. I sat down, and asked him about the possibilities. He looked at me kind of strangely. "You DO know where you are, right?" He was telling me that the Pioneer was still the same Truck Stop it had always been. I needn't have worried. One of my favorite waitresses was working, a very good sign. I would be cared for today! I asked if there was any possibility of getting a Thanksgiving Dinner. Not at all unusual for this place, she smiled and said: "Leave it to me!" When you sit at a booth in a Truck Stop (as, say opposed to any "real" restaurant...shakes his head sadly) it goes without saying that people will be talking, and usually loudly. New Berlin, Wisconsin. Do you actually think these happy, food slingin' family folk would be whispering? Fuhgetaboudit! A family behind me was having a rather intense discussion about the recent behavior of a young teenaged male and his friends on the previous evening. What I heard was: "I cannot believe you boys actually did that. And, of all places, in a Church!" Raised voice of teen fairly shouts "So what if it IS a church? I don't care. God never did anything for me, and that's fine by me!" I hear the sound of a rather hefty Lutheran-esque slap dismember previous voice's word from thought. "Need I remind you that if it weren't for God, you wouldn't be sitting here right now; you'd be in the cold ground!" "Yeah, well, I didn't ask God for any favors!" What could have passed for the quiet voice of a Grandmother calmly said: "No, you didn't. But I did." Seems young Johnny had been the victim of a drunk driving accident which took the life of his mother, the older lady's daughter. "Young man, I do hope you live long enough to understand what has happened here tonight." "Yes ma'am, Nana. I'm sorry." The voices dimmed a bit, and my mind began thinking. Natural gratitude. Thanksgiving is a noun. Thanks-giving is a verb. My mind went to playing in its usual strange places. Gracious gratitude. Gracious Thanks-giving. Radical gratitude. Radical Thanks-giving. I would pen the story, and file it away. I thought I might even maybe some day write it on WDC. Like a diorama, or tableau, these concepts were played out before me in a truckstop on the road. I got plenty of time to consider the purpose these thoughts had been given to me. I got plenty of time to think about what they meant to me, in my life in those wonderful days of the good life of a long-haul truck driver. Evidently, the good folks that ran the Pioneer thought I was going to be their last customer--ever! I didn't get some Turkey. I got about five pounds of White and Dark meat on a platter. A pure mountain of mashed potatoes. It was just obscene, the amount of food those folks gave me that evening. And, I got a whole Pumpkin Pie to take with me! There's only one price for any meal (drinks and dessert included!) at the Pioneer. That is the way it has always been. $9.99 was the Holiday price. Laughter. Joy. Fine dining. Fellowship. Life playing out before my eyes. Well, anyway. That's where the essay was birthed. So now you know! Radical grace. Radical gratitude. Radical Thanks-giving. That's what I feel this second as I recall those events on that special day, my last Thanksgiving as a truck driver. I hope you can feel that, too on this special day for Thanks-giving. I am so very thankful for so very much. You are a huge part of that, too in my life. Thank you for being along on this journey with me. I have discovered since returning to full membership here at WDC that there are many writing friends who have passed on, and gotten beyond their valleys. The shock of the sheer number of them has had me quiet for a few days. knowing so many of them as beloved WDC members really had the effect on me, personally. I also had the privilege of discovering that, during my absence from my portfolio, friends along the way had submitted 227 reviews of my writing! Purely Radical! The leaving, and the staying committed to one another. No, it isn't mere wordplay. That's the entire point. It is really important to me as a person, as a writer, and as a member of this amazing community! I hope it is for you, as well. I know it can be. If you don't think so, just ask me. I'll tell you. Happy Thanksgiving, beloved friends. And, if you still haven't found a reason to give thanks of any kind today, won't you please stop by the writing of one of the most important people to me, personally along this insanely wonderful WDC journey? She has been a much more loving, dedicated and committed friend to me than I have ever deserved. That's got nothing to do with me, and every thing in this world to do with her. Read HER Thanksgiving story, and consider that giving thanks should always be about.
You might see her as a moderator at WDC, or an instructor, or maybe even as a writing friend. She is my hero, and my friend, and a soul to lean on when the "sometimes" of this journey get really difficult. I owe her very, very much as a mentor, as well. By the way, she's also, as it turns out, a completely wonderful writer. Stop by her work. Leave a footprint there, and let her know you saw her words. That is a form of thanks giving all its own. I'll let you figure out which kind of thanksgiving, but I do promise you will feel it in yours. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. No, REALLY! Radical thanks to you all. Budroe |
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