The latest…

I apologize to all who follow along here as I have been bad about updating the site. After our last trip to Boston on Oct. 2nd, the plan was for Victoria to start radiation this coming Thursday. However, after we left, her team of doctors met again to review her MRI and CT scans and decided that they would, in fact, like to perform a 4th surgery to attempt to remove the cm that’s left of the tumor before they begin radiation. We don’t have a date for that surgery yet since there’s a shortage of iv fluids due to hurricane Helene, but we’re hoping for it to happen in the next couple of weeks. Victoria will begin her 8 weeks of radiation once she recovers from that surgery.

On hearing this news, we were a bit disappointed because the timeline we'd had in our minds was for Victoria to be finished with everything by Christmas.

In Western culture, time is seen as linear, moving from past to future. This can cause anxiety if we feel like we're not progressing. In contrast, Eastern philosophy sees time as cyclical, with life repeating like the seasons. This view encourages patience and living in the moment, knowing that everything, good or bad, will pass. This is the view I'm trying to adopt and practice every day along the with practice of Stoicism. If you've not been introduced to the principles of Stoicism, I highly recommend researching the philosophy. It's quite fascinating and eye-opening.

Our mental state greatly affects how we experience time as well. Joyful moments, like planning my wedding, seemed to fly by, while painful ones, like caring for my dying father, felt endless. Yet, with distance and a better mindset, even those hard times feel short in retrospect. While having deadlines for tasks and events does push us to be productive and put an end date on things, I'm trying to shift my mindset to be more about lifelines; relationships, passions, and moments that give life meaning. While deadlines remind us time is limited (hence the word "dead"), lifelines remind us to savor life. Balancing the two allows us to make the most of the time we have, but lifelines are what make life worth living.

As always, thank you for your continued prayers and support. Victoria’s strength continues to amaze us as she goes with the flow of a beginning the school year with normalcy to having leaving mid-quarter to go back to a city where the only people she knows are doctors (okay…and a professional baseball player). Looking into some upcoming Patriots and Celtics games to as well:)

Much love,

Paige