Choose Life! And invent a million dollar idea along the way....

I had a problem. My radiologist told me I must be sure the area that will be radiated for the next six weeks not be exposed to the sun. I cannot use suntan lotion either or the radiated area will be REALLY TICKED OFF. The area extends from just above my clavicle, across and down my chest, and on to portions of my back and underarm. The only thing that covers it fully is a high neck t-shirt.

My problem is I love to kayak, and have been given the go-ahead from my surgeon to kayak. However, kayaking in a high neck t-shirt with sleeves is hot. I ideally want to wear my bathing suit…but would need some sort of sun protection over the areas that are in the radiation zone which my bathing suit doesn’t cover.

I needed a sun cape. A lightweight sun cape that could get wet.

You would think with the huge number of women who have breast cancer that someone would have designed such a thing. NO. I looked everywhere. Nowhere on the entire internet is there a sun cape. The closest thing I could find was a cassock for priests…around $350 on sale. And they are not water friendly. Nor cool. (At least not temperature cool. They are the other kind of cool, if you ask me.)

I also found costume superhero capes, but they were too long, and not appropriate for water sports. Note: superheroes are Batman, or Spiderman, or Superman...never Fishman. (However, I did like the idea of kayaking in a batman cape made for children, impracticable as it was….)Besides, I needed 360 degree coverage. Superhero capes don't usually cover the clavicle and upper chest. I suspect superheroes don't get breast cancer or require radiation therapy.

I contacted my clever daughter who suggested I sew one. It would be easy, she said. Since it was so easy, I was hoping she would offer to do it, but no offer was forthcoming.

I mused over the problem, and had a brainstorm. I took an old t-shirt and cut off the bottom half. Then I cut open the armhole seams. I sewed it so that the open arm seams attached to the sides and voila, the t-shirt became a cape! Then I hemmed it with a nice zigzag stitch in contrasting thread. I now had a chic, cost-free sun cape. 

However, it was originally a t-shirt with an ugly design I had never liked. It was for a team I had managed years ago, and the design printed on the back was of a skeleton. I didn’t want my new sun-cape to have something so depressing as a skeleton on it.

So I found fabric paint from who-knows-when-or-where, and began drawing over and altering the skeleton design. I had thought I would just spend a few minutes, but soon, the design took on a life of its own and I worked for an hour or so.

The result is pictured here.

Choose Life.  

Choose life when I have cancer, remembering cancer doesn’t have me. Choose life when abortion seems to be the only way out. Choose life when God sets before us blessing or curse, life or death. Choose eternal life in Jesus. 

I was so happy. Not only did I have a sun cape that would slip easily over my head, was washable, and made of cool cotton, but the design was creative and unique and said just what I wanted to say while kayaking across the peaceful waters of my beloved lake.

I will call it my Son-Cape. I think I may wear it as part of my cities4life uniform when I go each Monday to the abortion center sidewalks to counsel the abortion-minded mamas. I am not a superhero, but I believe my cape is anointed by the One who created those babies, and me, and yearns for us to choose life. Choose Him.

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Deuteronomy 30:19 

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

Psalm 139:13-16 

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

John 10:10 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.