Now, What?

What do you do five minutes after you get this kind of news?  Nothing prepares you for that first five minutes.  I instantly found myself calling my great friend, BB, who is currently being treated for cancer.  I knew she would understand the shock, and I knew she could keep her mouth shut until I figured out when and how I was going to tell my family.  The call went to her voicemail, and I remembered that, as it was Tuesday morning, she was probably getting her weekly chemo at that very moment.  (Turns out that is exactly what it was.  She said she saw my name come up just as the chemo was going in).   She called back within five minutes and was just the right person to tell first.
If you are more awesome than I am, you probably head for the nearest House of the Lord to seek peace and comfort.  If you are me, however, you want to start throwing away paper!  I know, right? I'm sure some psychologist has a theory on that one.  As soon as I got home, I wanted to throw out all unnecessary paper in my life.  I actually knew where that thought had originated.  I've never wanted my loved ones to have to sort through boxes and bags of my "stuff" one day--airline tickets, sentimental receipts from lunch with a sister, an expired coupon for $10 off of $25...all tossed in the garbage. I thought of the personal belongings I'd left in storage in Phoenix and knew it was time to get them up here to Boise. The thought of my family having to drive to Arizona one day and go through all my "stuff" deciding what to keep, what to toss, what to give to whom...the thought of it made me sick and sad for them. I needed to relieve this burden ASAP.  I called my dear friend in Phoenix and asked her for a ginormous favor with regard to the storage unit.  She responded with greater generosity than I could have ever imagined. More de-cluttering was going to take place.
I wasn't doing this because I thought I'd be gone in 15 minutes, it was just because I immediately went into, "How can I make this easier on my family and less of a burden for them going forward?" mode.  Even though I wasn't ready to tell them yet, this was my immediate response to how to make this easier for them.
Throwing away paper was the obvious answer :)