When you are told you have cancer, all of sudden you sense you have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. Unfortunately, life gets in the way. You still have a family to take care of, a job, neighbors to annoy, banks to rob, school, elderly parents, you name it. Cancer doesn’t care you have things to do; instead you feel you have to take care of everything now, so multi- tasking takes over. Although efficiency is great, it sometimes gets messy. In high school I was a hospital maintenance worker in Ticonderoga, NY for the summer. I had a spectrum of duties, but the best was cleaning the morgue out after autopsies. After an autopsy (always before lunch) I would go over to the morgue and pick up a large bucket of organs and limbs and bring it over to the freezer. We froze the organs for a month then drove a panel van of frozen organs and body parts over Tug Mountain to the incinerator at Glens Falls Hospital. I was always worried the van would break down in the middle of the mountains with a ton of frozen organs in the back. My supervisor, Gene, told me once, “when you pick those organs up bring the whole bucket, not just the bag otherwise it will bust open.” One day I was multi-tasking: running the laundry, picking up garbage, mowing the lawn, when I got a call to clean out the morgue. In a hurry, I ran to the morgue, grabbed the bag of organs without the bucket and dragged them to the maintenance shed. Halfway there the bag broke in front of the ambulance entrance and about 20 feet of intestines rolled out into the drive way. Gene was standing in the door at the maintenance shed with a tooth pick in his mouth watching cars run over the guts spreading goo everywhere and simply said, “go grab a shovel.” It’s okay to multi-task , but there are limits. I know you have a lot of things going on, but focus all of your energy on treating your cancer by shrinking your to do list; the other things will take care of themselves.
Thank you Pete for Sharing
You give us all strength and HOPE💗💜
Love and Light and Blessings
Life is a Journey and you are walking with Grace
Loren, thanks for the note; I appreciate your good thoughts. We’re in Goodland this weekend, so hopefully we’ll run into you. Best, Pete
How have I never heard this story before?
You never cease to amaze me. Your strength, your courage, and your resiliency to the health challenges you’ve faced. Best of all, I love your dry sense of humor. Blessings always Pete.
You continue to amaze me with your incredible ,unique sense of humor. Our “To Do List” keeps you in line! LOL If only you could iron those plaid shirts of yours!
OMG, my sides are split! I can absolutely picture the entire “series of unfortunate events” unfolding. Thank you for sharing this profound life lesson, and the message written between the lines. ❤️
We need to make a “Wonder Years” version of this story. I just see this happening and you narrating it like you masterfully just did.
Thank you for your continued inspration
This not only applies to the challenges of an illness, Pete but is a NOW word for all those who are in the middle of a challenge that is seemingly overwhelming…..Jesus said in Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Prioritize!!
Pat
You never fail to make us laugh. Did your luggage arrive as we are missing the plaid shirt lol.
Got the luggage yesterday, but I’m thinking triple plaid is in my future