The next step

This journey that I am on has a tempo of it's own and each step moves me closer to my ultimate goal--a clean bill of health.  I have finished chemo and have marched right on to the next step which was somewhat surreal, quite a bit ironic, and just a little bit scary.  Ok, maybe more that a little bit.  Radiation!  Just the word can send shivers up your spine.  At least it did mine.  All of my life the "experts" have been telling me to avoid sitting too close to the TV - radiation.  Or to avoid long exposure to computers - radiation.  Or to avoid too many x-rays - radiation.   And certainly, do not stand in front of the microwave while it is running - radiation! And yet here I am, laying patiently on a skinny table EVERY DAY, allowing myself to be subjected to rather large doses of ...yup, radiation.  That's the ironic part.  And just laying on the table as a machine revolves around me, and lots of lead "teeth" (for lack of a better word) behind a plate glass close or open depending on the orders given to it by the techs sitting protectively behind a wall, which then stops periodically to emit a llllooooonnnnngggg stream of radiation (I can tell each time it does it because it sounds like a 15 second x-ray being taken) is the surreal part.   (That was a James Joyce sentence :)).  And the scary part is all of it.  Needless to say, I've had a moment or two since I started this.  And the mind likes to play tricks on me while it is happening.  I would tell you that I can feel my skin and muscles heating up as the machine delivers its bounty.  They assure me that I won't feel any of the radiation.  Any more than you feel a chest x-ray or a dental x-ray.  But I would tell you that I can "feel" it just the same.  The mind is a powerful thing.  Yet, as I lay on the table patiently waiting for the machine to finish its job,  I have time to reflect on the many blessings that the Lord has given me...an amazing family, good medical care, an understanding employer, food to eat and the pleasure of tasting that food, a good roof over my head, freedom to worship as I please, the many freedoms I enjoy, books to read and the light to be able to read into the night if I want, well...this list goes on endlessly.  But I do thank the Lord for every one of these blessings and the ones that are too numerous to list.  I have so much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving day and every day. We all do.