Where’s your quiet space?

For me, my chemo chair has become my quiet place. A time for me to sit and reflect, a time for me to intentionally reach out to people who are on my heart, a time to be actively grateful.

I know a lot of the people I love from back at home in Oregon have had one of the most stressful weeks of their lives. One of my friends who is a brand new mom has moved three times with her newborn baby to evacuate from the fires.

Today also marks 9/11, a time that completely devastated our country. I still remember how my mom gasped as she turned on the news, all of us running out to the living room to watch the planes fly into the towers.

But wow do we still have so much to be grateful for. When I look around in the chemo ward, I see so many people literally being saved by the medicine being pumped into their bodies, including me. I see the amazing doctors and nurses and social workers and that one lucky guy, Ron, who has to give me a shot in the butt every month. (He asked me how my butt cheek was feeling today after my shot yesterday and then we elbow bumped as I complimented him on his Batman shirt )

When I look back at the fires near my hometown and reflect back on 911, I see the countless firefighters and first responders and volunteers and you name it all trying their best to save and keep as many people as safe as possible. I see friends of friends of friends stepping in to move and host strangers and their animals as they evacuate. When in your life can you say that you’re staying at your ex-sister-in-law’s ex father-in-law’s house? My friend can, and I’ve heard so many stories just like this of just so many unlikely people all coming together.

Whether you’re fighting through health problems, fires, a divorce, being a new parent, keeping a business afloat, or whatever life is throwing at your right now, my hope is that we can all find our quiet spaces amongst the chaos. Those moments to just be quiet, be still, and know that we always have a God that will get us through.

We’ll make it through

(Also, only THREE more rounds of chemo to go. On the homestretch!)