Last week, for my second chemo session, I asked my beloved friend Sydnor Sikes if she would bless the intravenous drugs used for my chemo. My intention through this journey is to is to have a beloved from each faith offer their prayers for healing over the chemicals. I want the chemo to be as holy water as it enters my body; bringing light into the darkness, chasing away all harm and healing me with each drop. Sydnor joined Jim and I at the Cancer Center and quietly prayed in Arabic. She said she saw angels all around us. I am not one who sees angels. But I did notice Pam nestled away in the other corner of the room smiling at us.

I thought alot about my choice to invite prayers for healing in both Hebrew and Arabic while a brutal war rages in the Holy Land, in southern Lebanon and northern Isreal. Cancer is like a war in the body, whether you view the cancer as the Hezbollah or the Isrealis. I battle my cancer. The chemo blasts my body like katyusha missiles. The radiation is targeted and precise like an Isreali special forces unit. I am an innocent civilian caught in the cross fire, a Hezbollah fighter ingenious and determined, an Isreali soldier focused and brave. And I am calling for a true cease-fire, the restoration of boundaries that fosters the possiblity of a deep peace and the rebuilding that occurs in the aftermath. I pray in Hebrew and Arabic. I hedge my bets. God only listens to the longing.