MY EPIPHANY


“I didn’t realize how faith would carry me through anything, even a brain tumor.”


when so many others were less fortunate. At times, I felt alone in a visceral way because people in my life reacted in a wide variety of ways. Some were able to talk with me about my diagnosis, while others were terrified of losing me and couldn’t discuss the possibilities with me. I found enormous comfort in the book of Job, who experienced losses and trial that alienated him from his loved ones. If Job could rail against God and then come to understand that we can never know the magnitude of God’s plans, so could I.


I have always used reading and writing as the primary ways I understand my life, but my search for reading material about my situation was frustrating. My


10


doctors warned me not to Google my diagnosis (and how I wish I had heeded that advice). While there are a number of memoirs penned by people who have lost a loved one to a brain tumor, I couldn’t find any books written by brain tumor survivors. I began to write the book I wanted to see


on the shelf, the book that became A Singer’s Epiphany: Faith, Music, and Mortality (GIA Publications, 2020).


I wrote about how much better my life actually was following the tumor, first for the most clichéd reason: that understanding on a visceral level that I am going to die someday (but thankfully not today) changed my approach to my daily life. Te deeper change in my life, however, was the realization that my faith was far stronger than I knew. I have always been a spiritual person and a regular attendee at church, but


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34