A Cancerous Reality

I wish cancer would just disappear forever.

I've always hated the disease, but I've never had it directly impact me as much as it is now. One of my best friends has a sister, Mary, who is battling it. I've become friends with her, too, and she is such a precious gem. She was diagnosed with cancer 15 months ago, and since then has overcome it twice.

But now it's returned with a vengeance.

And it's so frustrating, because I can't stop it. No one seems to be able to do so. Will there ever be a cure? Will we ever have comfort in knowing that someone diagnosed with cancer will be able to triumph without any doubt? Or will we forever be in this seemingly alternate universe of a waiting game...waiting for someone to be a miracle or waiting for someone to leave us?

I don't even know how to comfort my friend, either. She's so brave and trying so hard to put on her strong face and press on as best she can. But it's hard. The tears are piling up, and, every once in a while, they come streaming down like a cascade of rain drops on a worn out field.

It's so hard to face reality, but it's even harder to escape it forever.

According to the doctors and other scientific research, MareBear has a 20 to 30 percent chance of defeating the cancer this time. I've vowed to be her prayer warrior, and I'm going to be it with the most hopeful heart possible. Even though those chances are so slight, only 20 to 30 percent survival rate, I know that my God can overcome even the most slim of statistics. He is so much bigger than numbers.

I can't make cancer go away. I can't make pain vanish from my friends' lives. I can't even stop their tears from pouring out when the most unpredictable comment or incident sets off a trigger that releases the streams that won't be slowed down.

It's out of our hands.

And I think that's one of the hardest things about cancer that we face.