Notes in the Middle
Hope Lives Now Blog
Faith in real life — the funny parts, the hard parts, and the grace that shows up when you’re not expecting it.
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Some days we need practical answers. Other days we need a little encouragement, a reminder that we're not alone, or simply a reason to smile.
Whatever brought you here, I hope you'll find something that meets you in the middle.
Latest Stories
Good Girls Wear Compression Sleeves
I've been a good girl most of my life. I follow the rules, like getting things right, and thought I could approach chronic illness the same way. Fifteen years of living with lymphedema has taught me otherwise—and somewhere along the way, my boring compression sleeves even turned into tattoos.
The Things Nobody Tells You About Life After Treatment
I thought treatment would cost me a year of my life, and then I would get my old life back. I did not know survivorship would become its own season.
Nobody Warns You About the Anger
Nobody warned me that cancer might make me angry. Not just scared or sad, but angry at what changed, what was lost, and how unfair it all felt.
When Cancer Makes You Angry
Cancer can make you angry—at your body, the timing, the losses, the people who do not understand, and sometimes even at God. Anger is not proof that you are handling cancer badly. It is a human response to something hard and unfair.
Grief After Cancer: Mourning What Changed
Cancer can bring grief long before anyone talks about loss. You may grieve your body, your plans, your routines, your confidence, or the version of life you thought you were living. That grief is real.
Sent Back to the Couch
After years of cancer, surgeries and unexpected returns to the couch, I am finally learning that rest is not failure—and my worth was never measured by how much I could do.
What Survivorship Actually Costs
Treatment may end, but the cost of surviving often continues. In this honest first post of the “Notes from the Middle” series, I’m talking about the hidden financial burden of cancer survivorship — the bills, the uncovered needs, the work decisions, and the quiet costs nobody prepares you for.
Survival Is Not the Same as Living
Survival and living are not the same thing. It took me years to understand the difference — and I'm still figuring out the living part. For a long time, I thought survival was the finish line. Nobody tells you that surviving and living can sit in the same body for years without ever quite shaking hands.
The Sleeves
They're called compression sleeves. And for a long time, they were the thing I hated most about surviving. That's a strong statement given fifteen surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation. And yet. Lymphedema wins the hatred category. Make it make sense.
