009: Nearing the End of My Beginning

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download For centuries, Celtic Christians have identified a "thin place" as a location where the veil between heaven and earth becomes especially sheer; a place where the unseen reality of God’s Kingdom is made vivid to the senses; a place where the Presence of God is unmistakable as it rouses the deepest spaces within the human heart. I can't recall a conversation with a sage that suspended me in a thin place for as long a sacred period as this one. John is a hero of mine and of many who was given a terminal diagnosis nine months ago: his cancer had returned with vigor, having spread into his lungs. He had already journeyed nine years with cancer, endured seven surgeries and multiple rounds of chemo, and at this juncture he felt the quiet, stirring invitation to choose quality of life over further medical intervention which, at best, could only delay his death. A physician himself, John said yes to living the fullness of life on behalf of those he loves, for however many more weeks and months he is granted. (more)