By Sister Janis Yaekel, ASC
I am Sister Janis Yaekel, ASC and I have pancreatic cancer. In fact, I have lived with cancer since 2012. I hope to share in my blog my journey and my reflections on the presence of God in my life. It is my hope that those who read my entries will find strength for their own journeys.
Have you ever seen a shredding truck?
It has big shredding machines and will go to a bank or business and shred its documents. Why do I bring this up?
Well, in the last 24 hours, I saw three of them! No big deal, I guess, but I rarely see them and to see three of them so close together makes me sit up and take notice.
When something like this happens, I often think of it as a playful sign from the Spirit. I don’t really believe in coincidences but rather is God-incidences, so I sat with the concept of shredding for awhile, and decided that it just might be God’s way of telling me that perhaps I need to do some shredding in my life.
Perhaps it means I need to get rid of a lot of the stuff that I have accumulated over the years. You would be amazed at the amount of junk that I have held onto over the past 40 years.
And then it occurred to me that maybe the “stuff” I need to shred is on the inside. Maybe it is all the disappointments and hurts that I have held onto that aren’t doing any good and may in small ways diminish the peace I have inside.
Now this is something that God may be playfully nudging me toward but something not so easy to do, especially those old hurts. I will be reflecting on this for some time to come.
One other little serendipitous thing occurred recently. It concerned the digital clock in my bedroom.
I purchased this clock when I entered the order some 39 years ago. It has been a faithful little clock all these years until about nine months ago. One day, I noticed that its light had gone dim. I probably should have thrown it out and gotten a new one, but I noticed that at night, when it was dark, I could still see the time, so I kept it.
I couldn’t see the time during the daylight hours, but after dark, I could readily see the numbers. After waking from a little nap the other day, I looked up and the light was bright again. In the middle of the day, I could once again see the time. Nine months of darkness gave way to renewed light! Something else for me to ponder, I’m thinkin!
I have saved my best news for last.
My recent CT scan and MRI indicate that the tumor inside me has not grown.
Alleluia!
The nurse called to give me the news well in advance of my doctor’s appointment June 1. The stress of waiting a long time for such news would have been unbearable.
Read other entries from Sr. Janis on her journey with cancer.