when a friend is diagnosed...

the first thing one wants to do is hug them. 

a diagnosis of certain death by dying is like a huge wake-up call. we are born, we live, we pass from this plane ... 

and then ...

my friend is a great person : a person who loves to live his life to the fullest and best of his ability. his parents are also great people whose suffering i can only have painful sorrow for. his child is in her mid-teens. this is a guy who should (by all rights) die living life, than pass from here by way of death by dying.

in the myriad of ways one can pass from here, one of the most common and downright WRONG ways is disease, of any kind. he's trying (for himself and everyone else) to keep his chin up, although it is (really) the one thing he can hang onto in this time : 

hope. 

he's searching the planet for treatment and has the means and know-how to achieve the best of what we humans have learned to do with our big brains and machines . i hope, for my friend's sake, that he experiences full recovery (miracles do happen, after all) ... but, in reality, stage 4 usually has only one outcome.

i may never be able to give my friend that hug, but i hope for myself that i am; and whatever else i can do for him, although he may not ask ... his life is in as much order as chaos allows: with his home, pets, child and travel partner all lined out.

as for me, i'm eating a freshly picked washington state gala apple in his honor, sending all the love and light i have in me; keeping faith in his swift recovery and hope -- for myself, and for him . 

best to you steven! 

may the fortune of abundant good luck bless and be with you in this part of your journey through here. 

namaste my friend -