This past weekend, I visited my sister Susie in Phoenix. She has pancreatic cancer, and it's wreaking havoc on her body.
Out of everything I could write or say about it, for right now, I only want and am only able to talk about this:
Love, and how little I've known of it.
I spent most of my time in Phoenix with Susie's husband, Mike. If you had asked me a week ago if I loved people well, I would have given some humble version of a "yes," but in my mind would have thought, "Of course I do." Mike has me reconsidering that.
While my sister is in the hospital, he handles everything else--the kids, the bills, the taxes, his work. He goes to visit her in the hospital and holds her hand and no matter how tired he is, he asks in the most gentle voice, "What do you need, baby doll? What can I do?" He gets on the hospital staff when something's not going right--not because he's a jerk, but because it's one of the only things he can control when it comes to this cancer business. He'll do anything, even if it's a tiny thing, to make this better for Susie.
This weekend, I realized that for most of my life, I've only played and splashed around in the shallow end of the pool of love.
Mike has dived into the deep end of love. Submersed himself. He holds his breath there and lets it burn his lungs.
I'm thankful for a guy who loves deeply like he does.
I have so much yet to learn.