The last two weeks have followed the usual trajectory. The weekend of 27th and 28th November was bad - a real struggle. Helen and I had done it all eleven times before, but that somehow made it harder. I ticked off the days through last week keeping as busy as I could. I actually felt less ill than I had after the previous two treatments, and the side effects began gradually to subside. We’ve had a good weekend since then, and already I am two weeks on from the final treatment. Tomorrow is a little milestone for me as it would have been the start of another treatment - that has been the relentless cycle of our life since last June, but not any more. Tomorrow will be a normal day and I shall continue to grow stronger as the toxic effects of all those treatments wear off. The words: “the first day of the rest of my life” come to mind. The chemotherapy has been a marathon for Helen and me. (I ran the old Kingswood Marathon in 1985. and after twenty miles found myself running further than I had every run before, with still another six miles, an hour of running, to go.) The last few treatments have felt a bit like that, but we have got to the finish line now, and we know we have done everything asked of us. I know I am ‘cured’ of the particular bowel cancer I had, and Oncology and I have done all we can to prevent secondary cancers beginning anywhere else. That was what was available to me last Spring, and I believe I have given myself the best chance for the future. The rest is in the Lord’s hands, and I am content to leave it there. It just happens that last year tomorrow was chosen as a our next St. Stephen’s Day of Prayer. So I shall be spending most of tomorrow in church in quiet and waiting on God with others. I love our prayer days as I get to do that knowing that up to sixty other church members are signed up to 15 minute slots all through the day to be praying as well. Tomorrow is definitely a new day as we seek God’s purposes for us here. As our Bishop has said: ‘When Christians pray, no one knows what will happen next.’ Well, I think, from tomorrow, I’m up for just about anything God offers us …