My wife is currently undergoing chemotherapy after her third surgery for ovarian cancer. Having witnessed both of her previous chemotherapy treatments, I feel as if I am suffering alongside her. Before and after chemotherapy, my wife becomes extremely sensitive. Especially after treatment, she unconsciously becomes irritable. After going through this several times, I realized that this is an emotional release after chemotherapy. 

  From the perspective of the Threefold Theory, humans are believed to have a soul, body, and spirit. Physical waste is referred to as “feces” in technical terms. No matter how important eating is, excretion is equally important. Especially when it needs to be done urgently, it might be more urgent than anything else in the world. In other words, humans must excrete (eliminate). This principle is believed to apply to the body, soul, and spirit alike.

  In that sense, my wife seems to have engaged in emotional excretion (purification). Despite being a highly rational person, she needed to urgently excrete, so she poured it out on me, whom she considered safe, and I try to understand and comfort her. However, my emotions are not easily resolved. Therefore, when one person is ill, their family also suffers, and those around them also experience pain. Therefore, those who have a safe place to release their emotions are fortunate.

Having experienced this several times in the past, I believe the recent chemotherapy was more frightening. This fear may have lingered in my heart, and I may have unconsciously released my emotional waste onto someone around me. However, there is nothing I can do about it.  Because most people, even if they know, struggle to survive by suppressing the expression of their spirit and soul. The cancer that has come to my wife this time seems to be telling her, “You must suffer. You must endure suffering to the point of death.” But what is peculiar is that there is an echoing voice that follows: “This cancer will be painful, but it will save you.” 

  Can you understand what this means? Over the past 20 days, while praying in the early morning, this echoing voice has been given to me at this moment. It seems as though God has given us humans pain or suffering as a final safety mechanism. This signal is interpreted as a command to stop. I think all illnesses, including cancer, are a turning point, a final battle to save the body. If we ignore or reject this signal and warning, death will come at a terrifying speed in the next stage.

After purging our bodies, minds, and souls, my wife and I have agreed to welcome the cancer that has returned not as an unwelcome guest, but as a guest sent by God to save my wife. In the era of the 100-year lifespan, perhaps there is still something more that the Lord desires to receive, even if it is belated. I reflect on whether it would be beneficial for each of us, including myself, to become good neighbors to one another and assist in the healing process of those who are suffering. I resolve to do so for myself.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)