Beauty is here, now, anyway
Three years ago, he ran a marathon.
Today, he received treatments for bone cancer.
At age 36, this is not what he had planned. Not even on the map. With two toddlers, a young wife, and scary circumstances, he has done a lot of comparing.
His mind races with comparisons of what he thought life would be like, what it used to be like, and what some fellow cancer patients’ lives are like. Inevitably, he compares his life with the seemingly carefree lives of his thirty something friends.
Each one of these comparisons is completely natural and to be expected. Who wouldn’t have these thoughts?
But, he decides that at present, these veins of thought are causing him more misery than comfort. So, he switches gears.
He eases back into the present. The precious present.
A contented smile betrays the joy found immediately in the moment as he listens to one toddler sing and watches the other one operating his tablet. “They are so smart at such a young age,” he thinks.
Then, his thoughts move to the kitchen, where he catches a glimpse of his wife washing dishes since their dishwasher is broken. “She hasn’t even complained about that,” he surmises. “I guess she knows we have more important things going on. She is beautiful inside and out.”
And that lump forms in his throat.
But it’s okay. Even though so much is not okay in his world, at this precise moment, he is good. All comparisons aside, he rests into the present.
Love completely engulfs him. And it is good.
Worth Repeating
Forget the Joneses.
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
