Naming rights

I have a bad habit of naming people I don't know. I mostly give nicknames to folks I see regularly but don't interact with, such as people who go to the gym at the same time I do weekday mornings. I mentally say "hello" to them as we go about our workouts, intent on our own exercises and rarely making eye contact.

My favorites include Grimace, who always has a pained look on his face, and Chicken Man and Chicken Woman, who are probably very nice but their pinched features prompt me to think of them as poultry people. Chicken Man looked at me and smiled once, and then I was ashamed for what I had named him. Another one I've probably got all wrong is Terrorist, a smallish young man of dark hair and skin who wildly waves his arms heavenward on the treadmill, as if praising a foreign deity. I think I'm on the money, though, with Step Away, who works out regularly but really needs to step away from the buffet table.

The lesson here is that people probably name me, too. The women who see me in the locker room might call me Scar Belly for my long souvenir of last year's cancer surgery. That would be accurate for only one small piece of who I am. So, I need to project the image of who I would be proud to be named. Smiley would be nice!

New life

On this Easter morning, it is fitting to reflect on the abundance of blessings God has bestowed on me.

A year ago I was still in fragile recovery from Cancer 2.0. I had endured a terrifying diagnosis, dealt with the challenges of chemotherapy and struggled back to health from major abdominal surgery. By the first few days of last April, I had just returned to work and was looking forward to the birth of my first grandchild. Things were looking brighter, but I was also afraid of getting too optimistic about the future. This morning I am in awe of how richly I have been blessed.

Easter would not dawn as bright and beautiful if not in contrast to the solemn message of Good Friday. Sometimes we have to experience fear and despair to appreciate what is good and right in our lives. This morning I am renewed, and I pray that God will use me to be a blessing to others.