A few years back, I was on the verge of being promoted to a leadership position at Apple. I vividly remember the meeting I went to on a Friday morning. It was an off-site all-day meeting in a room full of wonderful people, leaders at Apple.
It so happened that the only women at that meeting were a woman manager and me. I felt special. I loved my job, we were financially stable, we lived in beautiful California, near the Ocean …everything was bliss.
…Or was it?
I got home that day before Conrad, as he needed to stop by the doctor’s office to get the results from some tests. He came home white as a sheet. He was diagnosed with cancer. And the childbearing door was closed shut in our face. This paired news knocked the wind out of us.
In all honesty, I vividly remember very specific details of those months, yet the entire season seems like a blur.
I remember the songs we sang at church that first Sunday “you give and take away, my heart will choose to say, blessed be the name of the Lord” …like never before.
Sickness shakes you up. It rearranges your life priorities. I would even venture to say that it wakes you up.
At some point, Jackie will be able to say that we are her parents because of cancer.
While you are alive and healthy, fear can keep you stuck in a relatively cozy place. Familiarity rules! Embrace a little pain and you come alive.
These couple of years have been the richest and most joyous. Though I could state wholeheartedly that I was truly happy back in California, working at Apple.
Happiness morphed.
