^{Support Registry Update}

I Aspire To Be Old

In support of
The Moody Family

As one of the younger people in the infusion center today, age has been on my mind. If you consider yourself old, what a privilege! Age is a blessing I hope I get to enjoy. Why is it that we usually speak of the many negatives surrounding age, but not often the positives?

The other day I caught my 41 year-old-self saying to my 40 year-old friend, "We're so old!" It was silly and a little disparaging. I'm learning I need to grow in how I contribute to the negative way we talk about aging.

Aging is hard and often involves suffering, but it's also good. When I turned 40, my Aunt Linda told me how much she LOVED her 40s and 50s. That's the kind of messaging I need more of in my life. The wisdom, life experience, empathy, nuance, learning, fun, and perhaps a better ordering of priorities are all benefits of many trips around the sun.

Getting a stage 3 cancer diagnosis at 41 has changed how I see older people. When I see a couple in their 80s I think, "Wow! You both made it to 80. You did it. Amazing! I hope I get to be you."

I know life isn't guaranteed, but I truly thought I'd get to be 56, or 62, or 75, or 83. I've had the spring and summer of life, but I would love to see autumn and winter. I want all the seasons.

Some things that help me face the next round of chemo are picturing dropping Silas off at college for his first semester one day, seeing Cooper bring his inventiveness to the table in his career, imagining Brynn as a beautiful bride and all the mother/daughter things I want to teach her, thinking of Thatcher graduating high school. It's no longer a given that I'll be here for all of that, but I'm going to fight and pray and do what I can.

At church on Sunday, I talked to my friend, Bill. He was in a bicycle accident in his 70's in which he lost the use of his arms and legs. Bill asked me how I kept going with the chemo treatments. I told him that seeing him faithfully live out each day God has for him and his enduring/trusting/suffering/hoping for a miracle encourages my heart to endure each day of cancer treatment I have ahead.

I aspire to be old. There's so much more I want to experience.

Liz Moody
11 months ago

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Comments

Karin Stephens

Praying alongside you as you fight, pray and do what you can do! May the God of all hope fill you with hope & encouragement through His Spirit that enables you to keep on keeping on and enjoy all the seasons of life ahead. I'm trusting God's goodness and that you will indeed "see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 27)!

11 months ago

Kimberly Hawk

Your wise words and mature perspective belie your still-young age, Liz. You are going to appreciate the beauty of aging so much more than most ever have or will, taking every new wrinkle and gray hair as a sign of hard fought-for victory. We should all be grateful for them.

11 months ago

Reneemanka728

I understand your aspiration to grow old. Some time earlier in this cancer journey, I told you that I prayed God would give you 50 more years. I just prayed that earlier this week.

Pop-Pop spent his 30th birthday in the hospital dealing with cancer surgery. God was good and gave him 50 more years. And they were good years, too. He was able to enjoy life, have more children, buy a home and land, and "work like a Turk" on the farm.

Mom-mom died when she was 63 yrs & 25 days old. I definitely took note of when I became 63 yrs & 25 days - I had made it! I've lived longer than my mom!

We are praying for your healing; we are praying for you through each chemo treatment.

Yes, I'm asking God to let you grow old!!

50 more years, here we come!!

11 months ago

Jennifer Saks

Liz, I know what you're saying. I had breast cancer surgery, chemo and radiation in 2000/2001. I was thinking those same thoughts. I remember my surgeon saying I was so young (I ws 55!) I was feeling kind of uncertain about my future. Now again, all these years later with an unrelated cancer, I am feeling some of the same. And yet, my mother lived to 103, and her father to 102, so I think maybe....but the comforting thing to remember is that before even one day of our lives began God had our days written in His book. (Ps. 139) He knows our beginning and our final day, and all the in-between. We can trust Him for each of those days, even the very scary ones. Knowing how many are praying for you, and for me, is a great encouragement isn't it? Chemo is nasty business, but it's good medicine. Not fun at all, but as you get closer and closer to being able to see an end in sight it will help, and planning fun things for those weeks you feel well definitely helps. We planned fun little (and some bigger) trips and activities as I finished one kind of chemo and started another, as I finished chemo and went on to radiation, and so forth. It helps to have things to look forward to. Please know I am praying for you. Praying the chemo will do its work and knock out those cancer cells, and praying you will tolerate it and find ways to "see the sunshine" each day.

10 months ago

Jennifer Saks

Liz, I know what you're saying. I had breast cancer surgery, chemo and radiation in 2000/2001. I was thinking those same thoughts. I remember my surgeon saying I was so young (I ws 55!) I was feeling kind of uncertain about my future. Now again, all these years later with an unrelated cancer, I am feeling some of the same. I am also one of the younger people (or I look younger, anyway except for the gray hair) in the infusion room. But I know I'm not really young, although that's a relative term. My mother lived to 103, and her father to 102, so I think maybe, just maybe....but the comforting thing to remember is that before even one day of our lives began God had our days written in His book. (Ps. 139) He knows our beginning and our final day, and all the in-between. We can trust Him for each of those days, even the very scary ones. Knowing how many are praying for you, and for me, is a great encouragement isn't it? Chemo is nasty business, but it's good medicine. Not fun at all, but as you get closer and closer to being able to see an end in sight it will help, and planning fun things for those weeks you feel well definitely helps. We planned fun little (and some bigger) trips and activities as I finished one kind of chemo and started another, as I finished chemo and went on to radiation, and so forth. It helps to have things to look forward to. Please know I am praying for you. Praying the chemo will do its work and knock out those cancer cells, and praying you will tolerate it and find ways to "see the sunshine" each day.

10 months ago

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