Imagine finishing your final round of chemotherapy in November, 2019. Once it's confirmed that that cancer has been eradicated, you rejoice! You want to stop wearing this ostomy bag that's been bound to your for the past 6 months. But, you've been through chemo, and it's tough. Your body needs to heal before enduring another major surgery.

The Holidays pass. Your surgery is scheduled for the end of January. 2020 is going to be a new year, you tell yourself. You'll do all the things you couldn't in 2019. The surgery goes well enough, but the recovery is brutal. For one whole month, you're bed-bound and toward the end of February, and your birthday, you can go out and enjoy a meal. Nothing too crazy, but life feels as though it's returning to normal.

And then the pandemic hits in March. And everything shuts down, everyone is ordered to stay indoors. You homeschool your daughter, who clearly states "you're not my teacher." She ends up being able to go back to school, fully masked, three weeks later. And you think this is temporary and that the curve really will be flattened soon.

It was tough battling cancer. Friends came to visit but mostly I was tired and felt isolated. I felt my freedom to move about at great distances had been restricted and little did I know what was going to follow once I had recovered from surgery.

One thing that got me through the despair, oddly enough, was the show "Better Call Saul." Seeing pictures of Shiprock, in New Mexico, where the show is filmed from that cast members Instagram accounts, was fascinating. Binge watching all seasons somehow preserved my sanity during the toughest times of my life and I swore when I was free to move about again, I was going to that exact spot.

When I really want something in life, I made it happen. So, I made this pilgrimage at both sunrise and sunset and was absolutely humbled by a natural monument that's roughly as tall as Willis Tower in Chicago. I'm at the forefront of where this magnificent structure resumes, leading to the main attraction. We are small and a blip compared to what stands here on this planet.