The Village

 A proverb that exists in many different African languages often appears in North America as: "It takes a village to raise a child."  As a lifelong educator I always appreciated that wisdom and was challenged to stay humble and to make sure I had my eyes, ears and heart tuned in to the others in the village.

In this part of our life, we are being shaken out of our forgetfulness that this proverb is about more than nurturing kids.  As we have entered a new treatment protocol for relapsed myeloma, we have experienced life in a village. A beautiful village whose people encircle Kathy and I. We look around that circle and see family members, friends and neighbours. Our eyes meet with nurses and doctors whose compassion directs their knowledge and dedication. People from our past life in education and our journey through cities and churches reach out to give encouragement. Even some we have never met stand in this circle. Some are praying, others are thinking about us and some are cheerleading. Within those groups people step forward with kind offers. Offers of a meal. Offers to give a day to drive on one of our frequent trips to the cancer hospital. Offers to help with daily tasks that might build up. Offers that most often exceed our need! All of these in hands held out towards us, palms unclenched. We are #thankful!

Family celebration, Thanksgiving 2021

It may take a village to raise a child, but we are learning again that even after growing up, we need the village. All of us can flourish in this village. Right now for us, it takes a village to fight cancer, and more importantly it takes a village to keep the faith. We are thankful for you, our fellow villagers!

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As I write, we are 5 days into this 6 month chemo protocol. God gives us hope through the very early results.