{"id":6727,"date":"2025-03-26T11:25:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T18:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/?p=6727"},"modified":"2025-03-26T11:25:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T18:25:59","slug":"the-end-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/2025\/03\/the-end-2\/","title":{"rendered":"the end"},"content":{"rendered":"<br \/>THE END<br \/><br \/>\u201c\u2026and they lived happily ever after.<br \/>The end\u201d<br \/><br \/>This is the classic wrap up and the end of a child\u2019s story. So satisfying, so calming. It lets everybody know that the world and everyone in it is safe.<br \/><br \/>Very soon we grow up and know that ending is way more complicated. The ever after has a lot of wrinkles and surprises.<br \/><br \/>I\u2019m at THE END of my cancer journey. I beat breast cancer, then thyroid cancer<br \/>TWICE<br \/><br \/>Am I at the end? I don\u2019t know. A lot of people stay attached to the worry of it, carrying around a burden about whether it makes a comeback.<br \/><br \/>I\u2019m reminded of Mr. Incredible saying \u201cSometimes I just want [the world] to stay saved! You know, just for a little bit?\u201d<br \/><br \/>I made the intentional choice NOT to hoist that worry burden. However, a negative leaves a vacuum. If I don\u2019t worry, what will I do instead?<br \/><br \/>I first wanted to hide during the time of weakness, and then I went very public. I was scary to be public and show my changing visage while I went through it. <br \/><br \/>People ask \u201cHow are you doing?\u201d<br \/><br \/>I can say with justification, \u201cI\u2019m done now.\u201d <br \/><br \/>And all those within hearing can feel the calming warmth of that \u201chappily ever after\u201d we\u2019ve learned to expect. Still as grownups we see the shadows at the end of the firelight.<br \/><br \/>I\u2019m a writer and an artist. How do I creatively express this story I\u2019m in? It\u2019s mine to tell. Real life gave the gift of an ending. A conclusion, for whatever that means in the long years of my life. If Joseph Campbell\u2019s hero has a thousand faces, this hero has faced a thousand epic adventures.  <br \/><br \/>I get to craft how to tell it. I think for the moment, I\u2019ll side with Mr. Incredible and let my world stay saved for a little. I look forward to another day when I get to tell more of this story<br \/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE END \u201c\u2026and they lived happily ever after.The end\u201d This is the classic wrap up and the end of a child\u2019s story. So satisfying, so calming. It lets everybody know that the world and everyone in it is safe. Very &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/2025\/03\/the-end-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thoughts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6728,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727\/revisions\/6728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}