{"id":33,"date":"2026-03-25T20:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T01:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/how-a-major-change-shifted-my-perspective\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T00:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:34:32","slug":"p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/p\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Do With a Miracle – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the first time in over two and a half years, I woke up recently with a thought I had almost forgotten how to have.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It was simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was also enormous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realized it was the first time I had woken up and thought:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That thought had shaped my life for so long that its absence felt almost unfamiliar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than two and a half years, cancer had been the quiet background noise behind nearly every decision I made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every strange pain, every doctor’s appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every scan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every test result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every moment of waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point I estimated that I had undergone nearly twenty CT scans in that time frame, at least 3 nuclear-medicine PET scans, multiple MRIs, and a long list of procedures and appointments with different specialists.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Some weeks there were four or five different medical appointments within the week; some were booked on the same date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add Type 2 diabetes spinning out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add medications being changed or stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add the uncertainty that comes with a diagnosis like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a while, it becomes exhausting in ways that are hard to explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if I\u2019m being completely honest, there were moments when I had simply had enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few years life delivered what felt like one emotional blow after another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original cancer diagnosis in November of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By January it had progressed to Stage 3 renal cell carcinoma and I lost my left kidney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year of chemotherapy followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then in July of 2025 I underwent emergency spinal fusion surgery after a disc ruptured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks later my dog Cooper died \u2014 a loss that still hurts more than I know how to describe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after that, my partner lost his job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then new growth appeared in my lung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scans showed it had doubled in size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything about it looked exactly like the pattern renal cell carcinoma follows when it metastasizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the next step was a PET scan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then a lung biopsy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And more waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you live inside that environment long enough, something strange happens to your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You adapt to survival mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You stop planning too far ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope becomes something you\u2019re careful with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because when hope disappears repeatedly, protecting yourself from disappointment becomes its own coping mechanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That had been my reality for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then something small happened that changed everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the morning of February 20th, 2026, I was sitting in the garage when I heard a brand-new song by Amy Grant called The Me That Remains.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always appreciated Amy Grant\u2019s music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this song hit me differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the first chorus I was already in tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lyrics seemed to open a door inside me that had been closed for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in a long time, I felt something I had almost forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That moment led me to do something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Sunday I went back to church – a new church, with a much more accepting message than the previous one – for the first time in more than three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then something happened that surprised both me and my oncologist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PET scan showed nothing lighting up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biopsy results came back benign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After six months of preparing myself mentally for the worst possible outcome\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the growth was not cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feeling of hearing that word after living in survival mode for so long is difficult to describe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pressure that had been sitting quietly in the background of my life for two and a half years was suddenly gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in the days that followed, another realization began to grow in my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When life gives you something extraordinary \u2014 whether you call it a miracle, grace, luck, or simply good fortune \u2014 you can\u2019t keep that energy to yourself.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Positivity dies if you don\u2019t give it away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope only grows when it moves outward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the simplest ways to restore your own spirit is to do something kind for someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psychologists have studied this for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acts of kindness actually trigger measurable changes in the brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And suddenly the answer became obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When life gives you something good\u2026 you pass that goodness forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moments like that remind us that kindness moves in cycles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, this experience has reshaped the way I see many things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a creative person, I used to create partly hoping for approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoping people would like what I made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But surviving something like this changes that perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I create because it\u2019s part of who I am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because creativity itself can help you survive difficult moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently I stepped back into the recording booth and recorded two songs within two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something I hadn\u2019t done in over two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the effect it had on my spirit was immediate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When something like that happens, you start paying attention to the signs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unexpected medical results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard not to see a pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe I witnessed something very close to a miracle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if life really has given me another chance\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

then I have a responsibility to respect that gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means creating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping where I can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But also learning how to balance how much of myself I give to the world\u2026 and how much I protect for my own well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because surviving something like this teaches you a simple truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The miracle isn\u2019t just that you\u2019re still here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The miracle is the chance to decide what you do with the life that remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Some days, life does everything it can to throw curve balls at you. Some days, you get delivered a home run.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are a few more reflections still to be had that have come from this experience. I’ll be uploading updates every two to three days to get them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time in over two and a half years, I woke up recently with a thought I had almost forgotten how to have. It was simple. But it was also enormous. I realized it was the first time I had woken up and thought: \u201cI don\u2019t have cancer.\u201d That thought had shaped my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-experiences","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/featured-image-0.jpg",1470,2205,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/featured-image-0-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/featured-image-0-200x300.jpg",200,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/featured-image-0-768x1152.jpg",768,1152,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/featured-image-0-683x1024.jpg",683,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/featured-image-0-1024x1536.jpg",1024,1536,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/featured-image-0-1365x2048.jpg",1365,2048,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"kennypeters","author_link":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/author\/kennypeters_bsm7pb\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"For the first time in over two and a half years, I woke up recently with a thought I had almost forgotten how to have. It was simple. But it was also enormous. I realized it was the first time I had woken up and thought: \u201cI don\u2019t have cancer.\u201d That thought had shaped my…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kennypeters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}