Ringing the bell

What is your favorite season? Mine is autumn. Seasons are predictable in that we know about when they will begin and when they will end. We know what changes the new season will bring. Right now I am thinking pollen! Spring is beautiful, but the pollen drives my sinuses crazy. 

Life is all about seasons. Some seasons are long and some are short. Some we can’t wait to finish and some we want to last forever. Some are memorable, and some we have forgotten. 

I have just completed a season today. It’s the season of getting fried by proton beams. I must say that I am very pleased with this experience compared to the expected side effects of the regular external beam photon treatments. Regardless of what type of radiation treatment one has, they all are meant to do one thing—kill cells in your body. The proton beams have been laser-focused in a tight area to kill potential carcinogenic cells near my sub-mandibular salivary gland. 

Granted I have had some side effects—loss of taste buds, mouth sores, difficulty swallowing and a big glob stuck in the back of my throat all the time—but these are all part of this season. They too will end with the passing of this season.

I completed my 33 treatments today. At the Emory Proton Center when a patient completes their treatment, they have a small ceremony concluded by the patient ringing the brass bell prominently hung on the wall in the lobby (see photo on Instagram: LarryCox354). Ringing the bell symbolizes the completion of treatment, but it also symbolizes hope for the patient that their life will return to their normal and that they will be cancer free. 

As some of you readers have experienced in your own life, one is not pronounced cancer free right away. It varies with each type of cancer and with each person. When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011, I was treated with proton therapy in Jacksonville, Florida in April and May of 2012, and I had the opportunity to ring the bell at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute. However, it was only in 2018 that I was able to get my radiation oncologist to nod his head when I asked him, “So, can I say that I am cancer-free now?” 

Don’t you wish that we could all have a brass bell that we could ring when we are ready for a season to end. But we are not in control of life’s seasons. The Bible says, “He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.”  - Psalm 104:19

We often read and quote this familiar passage of scripture: 

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” - Ecclesiastes 3:1

But the real message is on down in verse 12:

“I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live”- Ecclesiastes 3:12

God intends for us to live life at its fullness in every season—even in this Covid-19 season! Stop complaining about what we can’t do and start living life at its fullness every second of every day. Jesus died that we may have life—and have it more abundantly. Do good! Be kind! Give praise!