Skin cancer healed

The lump in my hand was gone…completely healed!

Let me back up a bit.  I’d had a lump in the soft tissue of my right hand, between thumb and first finger, about the size of a small pea for several years, but over the past couple of months it had grown to the size of a large bean.  It had also become extremely sensitive to touch, so much so that I caught myself unconsciously scratching and rubbing it against my jeans to ease the irritation.  The skin covering the lump had become thick and scaly and there were times when I’d pick at it until I peeled a large piece off.  This would leave a large hole, although it never bled.

I had scheduled my first talk for The Training of the Wolf, at a local bookstore in Birmingham (Books, Beans and Candles), but as the day for the talk approached I realized I was totally unprepared.  It was such a relief when Mitchell phoned and asked to reschedule because of an unforeseen conflict.  We were able to work out a date three weeks later which gave me ample to time to get ready.

As I prayed about how I should go about preparing for this meeting what came to me was that I needed to regain the level of inspiration I had had when writing my poem “The Dream”, which is the climax of and closing for the book.  It goes like this:

The Dream

I feel it fading fast away

 as I awaken to the day.

Only half-remembered now

 those things

 which truly seemed

to be.

Yet, were they true? Could they be real?

Those things we do, and see, and feel.

No! Real is what I now perceive

 while unfettered I soar

above the mist of

sleep,

knowing the joy of silence,

and the Truth that makes man free.

I spent many hours going over this poem and thinking about what it meant to me – not only about what it meant when written in 1980, but in all the years following.  When the day came for the talk I was ready.  A few days later, when I next thought about my hand, the lump was completely gone.  I am so grateful for this healing.