NOVEMBER 2022
“You always wonder if your faith is as strong as you think it is. It was a relief to find that mine was.”
Leslie Selage Retired pastoral musician
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I prayed that I had enough strength to take what was coming. Ten I had to decide what to do about it. I chose gratitude.
A few months in, I realized I would never sing or play again. I had to mourn my identity. For thirty years, I was “Te Musician,” the queen of sung prayer. And all of a sudden, I wasn’t anymore.
While I miss it, it’s kind of like missing your hometown when you’ve moved away. It doesn’t leave a hole in your life because you’re filled with memories and friendships. Te more grateful I am, the less I miss what’s gone.
So I decided every day I have 5 things I have to do.
• I have to find something funny—on the internet, or in a book, whatever.
• I have to find something—it can be as simple as the clouds outside the window—that takes my breath away at the awesomeness of God.
• I have to find something overtly spiritual.
• I have to compliment a stranger. Tere’s a Facebook group for people who buy flowers for strangers in Aldi grocery stores. It’s the best $4 you could spend.
• I have to find something good in every negative. Like scrolling by that person who posts something absurd on social media, instead of responding. I remind myself that this is a good person who’s lived a good life, and I’m grateful for the good times we’ve had.
I’ve had a wonderful life. How can I whine—“Why me? I can’t sing anymore, can’t go to conventions anymore?”—when I’ve built such beautiful friendships that made my life rich and beautiful? You don’t whine after an expensive dinner because you can’t eat there every night.
What the cancer gave me was the ability to let gratitude outweigh grief. You always wonder if your faith is as strong as you think it is. It was a relief to find that mine was.
Author and liturgical composer Kathleen M. Basi is a mother of three boys and one chromosomally-gifted daughter. Her music for Catholic worship is available through GIA and OCP, and her song “Come, All You
Tirsty” won the Association of Catholic Publishers’ 2022 Song of the Year. She is a published novelist and the founder of
intentional-catholic.com, a web-based ministry seeking to connect our Catholic faith to the real, practical situations of daily life.
kathleenbasi.com.
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