When the Ground Shifts: Finding Footing When Everything Changes

Facing a Stage IV cancer diagnosis is like standing on shifting ground—everything familiar suddenly gives way, and you're left wondering what to hold onto when certainty disappears.

I've just published a deeply personal essay on my Substack called "When the Ground Shifts." In this piece, I explore what happens when your body no longer makes promises, when simple tasks like walking through an airport become tests of will, and when you realize there's no trail map for a journey you didn't choose.

This isn't about the physical toll of cancer, though that's immense. It's about the deeper reckoning with uncertainty. Unlike challenges I chose in the past—expeditions, projects, even divorce—this path came without preparation time, without a guidebook, without the illusion that working harder would get me "through" it.

But in that shifting ground, I've discovered something unexpected: small practices that tether me to the present moment, writing fragments that give shape to chaos, mindfulness that brings presence, not peace, gratitude for the weight of a blanket, the voice of a friend checking in.

For anyone who has felt their ground shift—whether through illness, loss, or life's unexpected turns—this reflection explores what it means to find footing when there's nothing solid to stand on.

I invite you to read the full piece on my Substack, “The Edge of Now,” where I share how connection can overcome even the deepest uncertainty, and how we learn to breathe through what we cannot control.

Sometimes, we discover we were stronger than we knew when the ground gives way.

You can find it at: When the Ground Shifts. 

— Thom