Unchartered Waters

In 2013 my sister texted me this cairn on Lake Michigan's beach in front of our cabin on the Leelanau Peninsula.  For those of you who have not kept up with your Scottish Gaelic, a cairn is a trail marker.  I had many people showing me the way through chemo that summer...through chemo and radiation that fall, and through surgeries that winter.  Thanks to some amazing physicians and nurses at the University of Kansas Cancer Center in Kansas City and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, along with many more faithful friends and prayer warriors, I survived.  God is good. And our Lady of Guadalupe is my gal.

As I sit on my porch today, looking out over that same beach, I am now contemplating my life's next chapter...my baby is heading to college in less than a month...and I will be an empty nester.

 I am trying not to freak out. I didn't fight so hard two years ago to survive stage three colo-rectal cancer to not enjoy life now....right?  I am determined to fill my empty nest with joy...because, after all...I still have... 

 four kids (who really want me to stop focusing so much on them)

 a beautiful soon-to-be daughter in law

 this good man who has put up with me for 27 years

four sisters who are stuck with me (that is me in the middle)

and these two troublemakers.

It's all good.