Flex
1 year, 2 months, 12 days since finishing chemo.
Since I was gifted with more life, I chose to savor it.
I’ve written a list of personal accomplishments, for those insecure days.
It goes like this:
Built a website and made online sales
Created over 70 original works of art
Sold (or will be soon selling) in 12 art events
Been invited into 9 exhibitions
Have my work in a published book- (submitted to the library of congress as a piece of history, still pending)
Won 2 awards
Had my work in a museum in California
Commissioned for 4 original paintings
Had my work listed on Artsy
Helped raise money for 3 charities
Had a solo show and have 2 future solo shows for 2027
Lost 50lbs
Made new friends
Taught my dummy dog to stop pulling on walks- which honestly was probably the most difficult accomplishment of them all.
I couldn’t have done any of these things without the love and support of my friends and family.
I couldn’t have done these things without the dozens of medical professionals who served me.
I couldn’t have done these things without the taxpayers paying for my treatment through Medicaid.
Cancer took a lot from this family, but the biggest loss has been Kyran.
And our son, Isaac, got one parent back, and lost the other- in a single year.
I often think about Kyran being a paradox. Everything about him was somehow polarized, yet completely complimentary. Gemini through and through
How beautiful is it that not only was his life utterly paradoxical, but he left in the same fashion?
Isaac has the full spectrum of how cancer can be fought for a year and overcome, and can also come in and take someone away in a single day.
A single rotation around the sun, and a single rotation on her axis.
Nearly a year I spent immobile in my bed, followed by accomplishing more than I ever have in the same amount of time...
It’s a beautiful example of literary antithesis, except it’s not a novel to analyze- it’s the lives we are living.
2 months and 27 days
