Ice cream and salsa

Let me first quell any anxiety you might be having over the thought of ice cream topped with salsa. I just thought it was a catchier title than "ice cream and tortilla chips with salsa." Independently, they are two of my favorite things to eat.

They've been on my mind a lot lately because I completed a Sunday School assignment to write my "testimony of suffering," and while recalling harsh memories of chemotherapy, I kept thinking about how extra delicious and helpful those treats were during that time. And we're talking 27 years ago, people!

For an entire year, I had a strong chemical taste in my mouth that never, ever left. So I often used chips and hot salsa to burn out the taste or ice cream to freeze it out. Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla and Welch's Grape Popsicles in particular were heavenly. Just typing that made my mouth water.

Simple pleasures are always there for the taking. Even when I'm "suffering" in some way (quotes needed since I have such a blessed life), I can still enjoy things like these, to name just a few:

• Drinking a hot cup of coffee in the morning
• Watching the sky change at sunset
• Sitting around my mom's kitchen table on a Sunday afternoon
• Thinking about the latest adorable thing one of the grandkids said
• Listening to a song that makes me feel like I'm 19 again
• Trying to guess if those homeowners on TV are going to "love it or list it" 

The possibilities are endless.

As I wrote my testimony about having cancer and thought about all the wretched vomiting, that old familiar feeling of nausea would start rising in the pit of my stomach. But then that would lead to fond memories of ice cream and chips with salsa, of gorging on doughnuts or Twinkies before a round of chemo because none of it was going to stick anyway. I had a license to binge, and I used it.

I couldn't include the fun food facts in my testimony, though. That really wasn't the point, and at six pages (edited down from eight), I'm sure it was much longer anyway than what my Sunday School teacher wanted.

I know, by now you're thinking, A dissertation on suffering and vomit? Where is this thing? That's something I've gotta read!

But seriously, if you have a hankering to read about the upside of suffering, go grab a beverage, get comfy, and peruse my testimony of suffering. Then praise the Lord and pass the chips!