Understanding personal gifts of everyday people

Discoveries

Richard Olmer

So, folks had some questions about my favorite places in Sequim.

Yes; there are some strange places on this list: ... a dental office, a pharmacy, the laboratory in Sequim where I have blood drawn, a barber shop and a hardware store. The other places sort of make sense given what I normally write about.

The fact is that almost two years ago, my life changed in a big way when I was diagnosed with stomach cancer. One of my grandfathers died of stomach cancer before I was born. It's funny, but I never even thought about stomach cancer. My mother, my father and two aunts all had colon cancer. My father and one aunt had colostomies. I was very careful about colon cancer and ignored almost everything else. Why not? I hiked, I quit smoking, I had regular physical exams, I had a good relationship with God ... why should I worry? Well, I also had a stomach cancer gene that I never knew about!

It's scary to have surgery that you've never even thought about. Usually you have some warning; my warning was less than a week. After surgery, just looking at a scar from my navel to my chest was disconcerting. Recovery was pretty easy but coming to terms with this stuff in my body hasn't been easy.

It's strange, but for years and years I had practiced a visualization thing where I did an inventory of body parts and imagined my good cells destroying cancer cells. I never included my stomach in this effort.

I focused on colon, prostate, heart, lungs, blood flow to my brain and throughout my torso, arms and legs. I had actually worked to fight cancer but had missed something. I wasn't as smart as I had thought!

The other thing that was hard was the follow-up blood tests and scans and MRI and the very real "living in the shadow of death." Up until this point, I was invincible, smart, prepared, and I had already been saved from death (I had two near-death experiences). How many can any man expect?

My outlook changed and I began to realize the really wonderful gifts that I was often given and yet never realized were there. A smiling face at the pharmacy counter meant a whole lot to me. The ladies who so carefully and so gently took my blood were a blessing.

The chit chat while getting a haircut was a special gift. Being able to watch the birds as your teeth were cleaned was special. And just having a smiling face to deal with when buying a replacement light bulb for my microwave or when buying bird seed, or when buying paint for some project is wonderful.

It sure beats dealing with no face and just a machine like at the big box stores (especially when it costs you more money for this unlovely convenience!). I've celebrated the gift of nature and the wonders of my environment for a long time. I just have never really understood the gifts that other people can give you even when they're just doing their jobs.

No, I don't now love everyone. There are folks that I meet that I'd just rather ignore than greet. But, just maybe, if I smile at them, I can give them the same good feelings that others have given me. I'm still not a nice guy but maybe someday I will be.

Well, that's probably a stretch given my ego. I have opinions on just about everything and I'm not above sharing them, but this cancer thing has changed me in some ways that I never expected. It's scary stuff and even when it's gone, and, it's never really gone.

I've reached the point where I can actually begin to accept my mother's idea, that there is some good in everyone.