In her book, The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin argued,  “it is easy to be heavy; hard to be light.” The words have profound meaning for me, and I think most of our family. When we meet people who have followed our blog they often say, “you guys are so positive.” They commend me for finding humor in the many twists and turns of Jordan’s cancer. I tell them that humor has been as necessary for us as medicine. If we allowed ourselves to take the easy path, and wallow in every setback—every decrement in Jordan’s health—I don’t know how we would have been able to support one another. It is sometimes hard to be positive and to celebrate the small victories, but it is necessary.

It has been nearly three years since Jordan last endured chemotherapy. And we are very grateful to be done with weekly trips to the clinic, watching Jordan’s blood counts, and comforting her when the medicine knocked her out or made her sick.

We started 2015 as our third year of “stability.” There is still a tumor in there, but it is stable, meaning that though it is hard to tell if it is active, it is certainly not growing rapidly and it poses less of a threat to Jordan’s health.

But in many ways these past three years have been very difficult for all of us. I was tempted to title this article “aftermath” in reference to the journey that happens after the battle with cancer. But in our case, we’re not really certain the battle with cancer is over. It’s an interregnum. Perhaps a better way to think of this journey is that we’ve turned off the main drag and strolled down some alleys. Some of them dark, others merely curious.

The great bandleader Guy Lombardo once said, “many a man wishes he were strong enough to tear a telephone book in half–especially if he has a teenage daughter.” That is an apt way to describe my experience yesterday with The Slayer. 

It may have been one of the best turkey burgers I’ve ever had. Or, maybe it was the company and the conversation that affected my impression of this fried culinary masterpiece. I sat across from a friend of many years–a friend who I sadly don’t make a point to visit nearly enough. He is a creative mentor, an innovative entrepreneur who always manages to weave his creative pursuits into inspiring social causes, and a long-time supporter of our Slayer. They are connected in more ways than one. He, too has wrestled with cancer, and as a result he has always been there when we’ve been in the thick of the fight. He is my friend Roger Holzberg.