relief

A pack of skinny black dogs jumps out at us as we turn the corner onto a new street. The boys curl up and I yelp, "What in the world!" - My husband's least favorite recent expression of mine. There is a wooden two beam fence with chicken wire separating us, and these dogs could clearly jump over and get us if they want. I turn on a cheery voice, saying "Oh, nice doggies, see ya later!" as I quickly jet all of us as far as possible away from the woofs. KC is barking back at them, while Aiden chimes in that we should all be brave. He says, "I'm pretty brave mom, although I think I got a wiggle wart and my nipple fell off!" He says it with such a serious voice, and I have to laugh and ask where he heard that? He says, "It's just an expression I use, kind of like goosebumps, mom, it doesn't really make sense!" Aiden goes on and says he loves days like this and I agree with him.

As we cruise into our driveway, I have this uneasy feeling, a hope that there will be plenty more of these walks like last winter... But as I swipe away a mosquito on my neck, I notice a little pang in my tender biopsy spot from exactly a week ago. A very long week trying to ignore the uncertainty of my health ... Sometimes you just need to keep on, keeping on... Scratch that -ALL OF THE TIME, you just need to KEEP ON...So I keep on, and we throw some leaves around and we start collecting the cool ones. Eventually, I dig my keys and iPhone out from beneath a big pile of leaves we collected in our basket. I notice a message from my doctor's office. I hold my breath as the boys start sorting the leaves and I pull up the message. Aaah, the biggest sigh of RELIEF with the word BENIGN... The message of relief arrived just after we rounded the corner in fear and chose to stay cheery (with some weird expressions to make us laugh and keep our sense of humor)... The choice to be happy is the biggest responsibility we are given. With a good bill of health restored, I will happily keep on pedaling along despite a few fearful turns and 'wiggle warts!'  KC is just learning to pedal straight and I'm going to be there right by his side. I'm just relieved I don't have to fight off any cancer or skinny black dogs.