Brain cancer is...

...continuing to teach us so much.

Hi Friends.  We've been taking it easy on you for a few days, so we need to share a few learnings today. We go from most serious to the least, so skip around as you see fit.


1.  A spiritual learning:  The mustard seed is a great metaphor. 


Summer and Andi appreciated the beauty of the blooming mustard from the top of the mountain to the flatlands.

• Darrell and Andi, who grew up in the Christian tradition, thought immediately of the Christian  parable of the mustard seed. The parable states that something as mighty as the kingdom of God starts from something as humble and tiny as a mustard seed.  That is indeed awesome.
• To refresh  our knowledge of the Christian parable of the mustard seed, we Googled the phrase and found that Buddhists, too, have a parable of the mustard seed.  Parables are stories (and thus we make our own meanings), so forgive us any errors in summarizing the story. Here goes. 
• A young woman, Kisa Gotami, lost her young son to death.  She carried his body about to her neighbors, who could not help with a medicine to bring him back to life. 
• One neighbor sent her to the Buddha, who told Kisa Gotami, "I will use mustard seed to  make a medicine that brings your son back to life.  Go back to your neighborhood.  Ask any neighbor who has not been touched by death to give you a mustard seed for the medicine." 
• Kisa Gotami went back to her neighborhood and could find no family that had not been touched by death.  She buried her son and returned with her news to the Buddha.
• The Buddha reminded Kisa Gotami of the universality of impermanence.
• For us, this story is beautiful not only for its lesson of the fleeting  nature of everyday life (tomorrow will be different from today, no matter today's nature) but of the universality of the human experience. 

2.  A learning about US government programs:  "Terminal illnesses" bring disability benefits.  If one is diagnosed with an illness that Social Security designates as "life threatening" or "terminal" (yes, GBM qualifies), one's social security disability case is expedited.  Darrell, the money manager, wanted you to know, just in case.


3.  A lesson for successful relationships:  Life is better when Darrell says "yes."  Today Darrell said "yes" to an early walk by the lake with Starbucks tea and coffee, "yes" to buying glue to fix the chair, and" yes" to a second walk back at the cabin.  Here's the "yes" to the walk at the lake.

(BTW:  Andi said "yes" to getting out of bed despite the lack of a radiation treatment. "Yes" all around!)