On Friday of this week, October 1, Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins. Also on Friday of this week, I celebrate one year since I completed active cancer treatment of surgeries, chemo and radiation. As these two moments converge, I share one of the Psalms from the Wilderness that I wrote during and after treatment, one that speaks not only of the disruption of cancer treatment, but the disruption of this continuing time of pandemic. As I share it, I urge all of my sisters to go and get your mammogram. One out of eight women face breast cancer in their lifetime. Twelve and a half percent! Early detection saves health and saves lives. Do it for your own sake and for the sake of those who love you.
Psalm for Embracing Disruption
The podcaster said Keith Jared only
agreed to play the concert
to prove that disaster happens when he
doesn’t get his perfectionist way.
I’d never heard of Kieth Jared.
I didn’t know about the famous Köln Concert.
I wasn’t listening to jazz in 1975.
But I know a little bit about perfectionism
and the crazy, passive aggressive acts
it compels us to perform.
The recording of that concert, the podcaster said,
a concert played
on a beat up
broken down
rehearsal piano
with pedals that didn’t work
The recording of that concert
became the best-selling album in jazz history
and remains the best-selling solo piano album
of all time.
Disruption released genius.
Disturbance set creativity free.
Disfunction made space for something astonishing.
God, set me free on this journey of recovery from cancer.
God, set me free on this journey through the wilderness of pandemic.
God, set me free;
from perfectionism
from trying to control the uncontrollable
from striving for genius
from seeking the astonishing
even from focusing on what I can learn from this.
Help me just to let it unfold
And to meet you as it does.