Decompression

When a SCUBA diver dives deep, or stays down too long, they must make stops at calculated intervals to decompress on the way back to the surface.  This is to ensure the nitrogen doesn’t bubble out of their blood and cause sickness or death.

Over the past month, our family has been thrown into the deepest ocean, figuratively, and we are slowly trying to come back to the surface, making stops along the way to assure that when we get there we will be healthy.  My daughter has been diagnosed with a type of bone cancer that happens in children just as their bones stop growing.  At a time we should have been celebrating her transition from child to young adult, she was dealt a tremendous blow and as long as I live, I will never forget having to go to school to get her and tell her she had cancer.

What do I mean by decompression stops?  At this point we all KNOW that she will be OK, but between now and then there will be some horrendous times.  But between them, we will stop and breathe, and know we made one more step toward the surface, and toward normality.

Last Wednesday, when my daughter went in for her chemo treatment, she was told she might not be released until the following Tuesday when the levels of the toxins fell to the right levels in her body.

On Thursday she was told that her levels had come down more than expected but she had a long way to go.  On Friday morning, her oncology doctor, Dr T, told her the levels had dropped so much that they were sure the labs had made a mistake and they were going to re-run the test.  Friday evening, an amazed intern came into her room and told her the level was low enough and she could go home.  With that, my family breathed a collective sigh and we had the weekend to relax and enjoy each other.  This was a decompression stop for us.

Out of all we are going through, we are again reminded that when you have a good day, it should be celebrated. You don’t know when the next one will come.  When a bad day arrives, smile and get through it. You do know it won’t last forever.  In the middle of all of it, find a place or an activity (you have seen mine) that lets you maintain your sanity and get to the next good day.  Those small decompression stops will get you to the surface.

Oasis

Do you have a place that is just yours?  A place where although you may let others visit, you truly feel belongs only to you?   I have a space like this again, for the first time in years.  You have been watching me put it together and now, my space is finally ready.

But … ready for what?  Ready to build new projects for our home.  Ready to fix things that would otherwise end up in the landfill – giving new life to items that had outlived their expected life spans.  Most importantly though, it is ready for me when I need to do something physical and put all of the thoughts of the day behind.   I hope each of you have a place like that as well.

I’ve written about passion and money and I want to return to that today.  A friend sent me an article about passion that really made sense to me.  We must learn things to support our passion, even if they aren’t directly on course. 

“Knowledge, discipline, generosity. If you pursue those with all the determination you possess, one day before too long, without you even knowing it, the chance to realize your most spectacular dreams will come gently tap you on the shoulder and whisper... let's go.  And you'll be ready.”           TED’s Chris Anderson addresses Harvard’s graduating architects

I would encourage you each to read the entire speech Chris Anderson gave to that graduating class.  He had a lot of good things to say, and many made me consider where I am, and where I would like to be.  I have put in place the mechanism that can catapult me to the place I would like to end up, now I will continue to pursue things that support my passion. 

This means three things to me.  First, I will continue to be engaged and involved with those that I know.  This group has always been the most supportive and has always helped me to think about what is next.

Second, I will continue to develop skills that make me a better craftsman.  This means I will continue to build for family and friends, working diligently to find better techniques and ways to do things. 

And third, I will think about what skills I need to add to the set of personal “tools” that I possess now.  Do I need to be a better public speaker?  Do I need to learn to weld? 

And then I need to show patience and perseverance and wait for the opportunity to present itself….and it will.

As many of you know, we’ve had some troubling medical news in our family as of late.  I will do anything and everything my daughter needs me to do to help her to be 100% again.  But, and I know she will agree with me, part of taking care of her is taking care of myself as well.  And for any of us to do that, we need to continue to grow.  So, grow I will.

How about you?