WINDRUNNERS

Ken did it well. Many marveled at just how well he did do it, and wondered just how he could. The sounding of his bell had been as strident and startling as it could be for anyone. One day he was completely well, a man of 55, actively engaged in life, family and work, and the next he was learning he had a stage IV high-grade lymphoma threatening his life in short order. He marshaled the stamina to endure surgery and aggressive chemotherapy chasing a cure and was rapidly rewarded with a complete remission. But it didn’t last long. ....

It caught my attention and piqued my curiosity when I didn’t see fear in some patients. They would walk and not be faint. They would run and not grow weary. They would smile and I didn’t know why. I couldn’t tell whether something called them forward, or something lifted them from behind. I came to think of them as the WINDRUNNERS because they ran so well, faster, smoother and longer, as if lifted over the rocks and potholes of the track and their cancer. I started watching out for what was different about them.