This I Believe

Steven Bassett

Bro. Gentry

Eng 106

23 May 2019

 This I believe

I believe in the power of commitment.  I can be driven by the power of commitment.  Its momentum can carry me through the many changes in my life’s circumstances and environment. "Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans." (John Lennon, Darling Boy)

When my wife and I were courting, we talked of family, babies, and taking care of our parents as they grow older.  We dreamed of the life and lives we would create together.  After marriage, the reality of life dissolved those dreams with the changed condition of our lives.  With my personal sterility and my wife infertility, our dreams of a family together were shattered.  Still, the commitment to those early goals never wavered.  My wife began a daycare center in our home, in hopes of diminishing the baby hunger she felt.  I dived into work and career to find a job to support our dream.  With time those pains of longing for a child of our own became bearable as we learned to care for nieces and nephews.  I think our life was good though it felt incomplete.  My wife's sister feeling this longing and desire of ours offered us the fruit of her womb.  Ashley was born and she fully met the conditions of this longing. This another step in our lives commitments fulfilled

My wife's mother was raising two grandchildren. These children offered additional solutions to meet our life’s plan. These cousins became her brother and sister; my wife and her mom raised these children as one family unit.  Life was good, I was grateful for the children we shared.  With time, my wife's sister again found herself pregnant. At first, she wanted this child for herself. She soon realized that raising him was not in his best interest. She offered us one more child.  Once Nicholas was born, it seemed so natural that he should be a part of our family, like God, intended him to be.  Soon my wife and her mom were raising four children as one family unit.  Things were not as we had planned at our courtship, they were better.  The momentum of our commitment carried us through this step too.  We met each challenge as it arrived.

The toughest part was cancer.  We learned early in our marriage of the cancer diagnosis.  We put it on the back burner and avoided its presence. Gastric Cancer is a slow burner, taking years to boil.  Occasionally I would inquire and my wife would inform me it was not a problem. The time came when it became a problem, with no solution. The next years were a time of increased anger and shame. In a desperate attempt to find a solution, we invited the gardener to grow an herbal solution. I had no faith in its ability to perform a miracle. Still, what did we have to lose? This commitment and its momentum carried us additional time. Thankfully the herbal recipe was a complete success and we are now in remission.

Now our children are nearly grown.  My daughter is married.  My son will soon get his driver’s license.  In a couple of years, he will be married.  Now our parents require more care.  She cares for her aging mom and I live with my dad during the week to guide his life and support his needs.  It seems strange this lifestyle my wife and I have chosen.  It was not the one we planned while courting, but it fulfills the commitment we made to ourselves and our families.  I call my wife every day to remind her how special she is to me.  I text her every morning as I go to work.  I share with her now, the poetry, I write.  It may not be the plan we made at first, but the power of our commitment carries us through the changes in our lives.  Our lives are full of joy.