Message from the Cosmos: What Does it Mean?

I took my Palm Pilot with me into the bathroom at work the other day so that I could play solitaire while I waited for nature to take its course but I overheard a conversation that I think the cosmos meant for me to hear. It was between two women. They sounded young, I’d say in their 20’s or early 30’s. Hard for me to pinpoint exactly since I never saw their faces. I just heard their voices and could make out their figures through the cracks in the cubicle in which I was.

“Are you visiting?”
“I’m here to fill out my disability forms.”
“Oh.”
“I’m going to be out for at least four to six months.”
“Do you take family leave for that?”
“Yeah. Well, what do you expect? I’ve got breast cancer.”
“You look great,” her companion said too cheerfully.

Someone else each of them knew walked into the bathroom.

“Glad to see you back. Are you saying hello or something?”

For the next five or ten minutes, the three of them chatted on about her upcoming chemotherapy and the sort of wigs she was buying. It was as if they were talking about buying new party frocks.

If it were me, I’d be screaming with fear; plotting my demise and expecting to die. I’d be tossing word grenades at those other women hoping to make them feel guilty. This girl with cancer sounded so brave and unaffected. I am sure she was not. How could she be? Where did she find the strength not to fall apart?

Each of them was uncomfortable. I heard it in their voices. They didn’t know what to say. They tried to sound as brave as the woman with cancer. They didn’t come close. Immediately I thought there’s a message from the universe here for me. What am I supposed to learn from this?

Something else happened as I am writing this. I returned to my office and a group of women collects outside my room. There is a voice I don’t recognize amidst those I do. It is distracting. Above it all I hear a coworker's familiar sickly horse laugh; It is loud and it is annoying. I turn around to see if I can make out what is going on behind me. I can’t.

Then I hear my coworker, the one with the laugh. “I’ll be praying for you.” Coming from someone else it would be a gesture of comfort. From her it's merely fake compassion. It's her signal that she’s got a special connection to G-d Almighty that she’s going to invoke in your behalf.

I turn and recognize one of the women from the office next door. I often see her in the bathroom. Then I realize. It’s the girl with cancer. THAT’s the girl with cancer whom I have just overheard.