What 'Terminal' Feels Like

One of the most frequently asked questions about terminal cancer is... what does it FEEL like, knowing that you're under a death sentence, date of execution unknown?

It was hard to answer until I had an epiphany while watching Pirates Of The Caribbean. No, the revelation did not involve rum. Unfortunately.

What It's Like is walking the plank, blindfolded. You can't stop, let alone go back, and you don't know if the very next step might be a really long one.

It's incumbent on a Christian to say, I'm falling into the arms of Jesus!, and while this is my secure belief, the truth is that we have to go through a one-way door to get there. We can believe what's behind the door, but we can't SEE it, and that's scary.

Normally, when at least reasonably healthy, we put it off, channeling Scarlett O'Hara... I'll think about that tomorrow.

But for me, and for many, many others, it's tomorrow.

(For the record, another common question is How Have You Lasted This Long...I don't know, but Olivia Newton John fought cancer for thirty years. Quite an inspiration.)

Each footfall's further in the dark,

over the vast abyss,

dominion of the hungry shark

(am I on his to-do list?).

I don't know where the plank will end,

and though I tread with care,

there's courage I just can't pretend

for when I step, and nothing's there,

and so I lift my shrouded eyes

unto the Lord who reigns above,

somewhere beyond the darkling skies,

that He might look down with love

that when that final step is taken,

I land in His palm, unforsaken.

The Five Minute Friday prompt this week is FORGET. Had something in mind, but I already forgot. My brain's like a shelf without a rear wall; put something on the front, something falls off the back.

Well, here goes.

It's easy to forget 'bout God

when things are going well,

but we remember (oh, how odd!)

when life goes straight to hell,

and we cry out, "Catch me, Lord!"

with all our strength and might

when we think we're spinning toward

an endless Stygian night.

I wouldn't blame ol' God at all

if He laughed and turned away,

but He will not let us fall

on this or any day,

so He lends faith we can borrow

'till He's ignored again tomorrow.

Four minutes. Does it show?

I couldn't find a musical accompaniment the fit with walking the plank, but here's Tightrope Walk, by The Damned, set to stunning scenes from 'The Walk', a film about Phillipe Petit's high-wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Centre.

Sylvia knows she's in God's hand, and that hand holds ICE CREAM!