Recently one morning arriving at my office, I grabbed an umbrella to shield me from a sudden deluge pounding outside my car and streaming through the parking lot. Fortunately I was forewarned by the weather app, so I had grabbed rain tolerant shoes. I pressed the nice red button on the umbrella handle, and voila, my compact, black wonder snapped to readiness.
As I headed toward my building, I saw an office neighbor scrambling toward her car, holding a small spiral notebook over her head, so I offered to share my umbrella with her. A bit drier and a lot happier, she hopped into her car and thanked me for my help.
Then I thought, why the rain? About to publish my second book, Beating Cancer One Truth at a Time, I was already in the storm metaphor mode. In the new book, I liken a new cancer diagnosis to a thunderous rainstorm, the unpredictable kind that drenches us to the bone as we search to use whatever protection we can find.
That’s where we survivors come in.
We’ve had the rain, gotten wet, and struggled. Now when we see the advent of dark clouds, we’re vigilant. Our alertness helps us, but it also helps us help others.
We can’t stop the rain, but we can make good use of it, and the results reach far beyond the rainbows that follow.
Copyright © 2018 Marianne McDonough
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