Years ago, when my family was happy and healthy, a friend of mine gave me a poem when I walked in a 60 mile Breast Cancer walk. I was walking to support a friend of a friend and I had not yet been touched by the big “C” in anyone that was close to me. That feels like a million years ago. Too many friends have fought this battle, too many friends have fought until they couldn’t. My best friend and partner didn’t know why he had to go… just that he did, because of cancer. While pulling out boxes of photographs to seek out every image we have of Samdog that has been tucked away over the years in random places, to assemble a photo album of our life together, I found this poem again, tucked in a box and written on the card that I once carried 60 miles. It has lived on my refridgerator door, where I see it every day, ever since.
What Cancer Cannot Do.
Cancer is so limited
It cannot cripple love
It cannot shatter hope
It cannot corrode faith
It cannot destroy peace
It cannot kill friendship
It cannot suppress memories
It cannot silence courage
It cannot invade the soul
It cannot steal eternal life
It cannot conquer the spirit.
I miss my dog every day. But I have his love, his life, my memories and all of our stories.
Cancer does not get to have those, it cannot.
Bravo!
It really hurts that we even have to learn these lessons, but once we do, it changes our lives for the better if allow them to. That is the blessing that it brings.
We would love to see pics of the photo album when you’re done with it. Samdog had such an adventurous life.
Thank you for sharing this poem. I can wholeheartedly agree with almost all of it but I struggle with “cannot shatter hope, cannot corrode faith”. For me, hope was shattered and faith corroded when we neared the end of our cancer journey.
I hope you can have some peace this Christmas. Even though it has been amost 8 months since we said goodbye to Magnum I am finding Christmas a difficult time wishing so much that Magnum was still here. I can only imagine it is tougher when there has been less time pass since you said goodbye to Samdog. I love your words – “I have his love, his life, my memories and all of our stories”.
I don’t know if you ever go onto this blog, I haven’t for over 3 months so I just saw your last entry. Powerful, beautiful, strong and mindful – like you, like Samdog! I had forgotten that we all carried that poem with us and I have it tucked away with all of my 3 day stuff but didn’t think it pull it out for Peach, Lucy, Kelso, Emma (& more). Thank you for reminding me. I miss Sam too but am happy he is with all his other buds and I am so thankful for Leo!