Okay my break is over. Happy New Year!

I sincerely hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's time. I took a break from Bloggin only because I was so unsure of the holiday schedule and my stamina. Well, with radiation over and no Chemo, I was surprised at how good I felt on many of the days. Even with a few bad ones thrown in here and there, all in all it was a Holiday season I will always cherish. Here is a link that shows a little side work I did during the holidays entertaining at a few nursing homes in town. http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=aa34f9e0db75db154855da4G06122916 just hit the BACK key when done.

On that note, I want to be a bit more honest and share with all of you one very important perspective of this situation, which I now like to call the BEAST. That name is what they call it on the Esophageal Cancer support site and I kind of like it. Because of the BEAST and my stage 4 condition, statistics don't seem to favor a very long future for me. So now that perspective I promised. The doctors encouraged me to begin to plan and embrace my future in terms of months and that everything they do for me is to make me as comfortable as possible and for the longest amount of time. Fair enough! What they just don't know yet is, that when Mike Marcou embraces something, he just doesn't shake hands or give a light pat and go on. I don't think I have ever done that. So I looked up "embrace" in my Webster and noticed the definition filled with words I like such as "affection", "surround", "to include as part of something broader", "eagerly and willingly take part" and "to avail oneself". So now you can see a bit of the perspective I am going to have. The huge flooding of love, support, calls, visits, notes, gifts, cards and emails and the incredible words given within them is the most magnificent rush of energy and encouragement anyone could ever receive. God somehow led me to this path, but before I got here He led me into so many peoples lives. I never realized just why, but enjoyed myself tremendously along the way. Now I begin to realize just how incredibly massive the return on my investment will be. Every book I read, every case Cindy and I study, all talk of support and attitude as major factors in the battle with the BEAST. Thinking about all of you, and what you bring to me, I feel like Sir Lancelot or Superman, ready to battle and win. So simply put, I have been given a path, a journey so to speak. One that most don't think is too long of a journey. Yesterday a very dear friend shared a story with me about a path. A path to reach and find a truth. A path not so often travelled, a path that got harder as it got longer. But the heart of the story was that the traveller went on and on, not stopping, not giving up, just pressing on and wearing down the path as he went. For my children, my family, and all my wonderful friends who love me, I need you all to know that I am taking that path, embracing it like it has never been embraced. I plan to move along that path for many many many months, counting them as I do and being a significant part of that 6 percent. Beat the BEAST, who knows, knock him down and run, NO, embrace the BEAST and wear it down from our long travel together on the path, now that sounds smart to me. I hope you all continue to join me in my journey as my energy, my comfort and my friends. I love you all. I am truly blessed! Oh, and I'm back blogging too!