Every morning we take a 20-minute stroll through the streets of Chicago. Leaving our apartment at 6:45 a.m., elevator down to the ground floor, through the double set of security doors and down the stairs to Damen Avenue.

Our building is on the corner so it’s only 50 yards north to Polk Street where we head east. As the sun is just rising at this hour, it stares us in the face hovering above the city horizon. I usually walk with my hands clasped behind my back as it tends to slow me down, Suzanne’s pace and mine have never quite meshed.

For the first block or two, the streets aren’t too busy. We pass by the original building for the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine. Built in the late 1800’s, they have been working on the facade every day we have been walking by. Once we cross Wood Street there seems to be more car traffic more pedestrian traffic and more noise.

A little way after crossing South Hermitage Ave. we approach the Polk & Paulina street ‘L’ station. Passing underneath it, the Dunkin donuts is just inside the doors under the platform where we grab some donut holes for tomorrow’s breakfast. It’s always busy as people are coming down the stairs, arriving to start their day in the medical district.

Just past the train stop, we turn north on Paulina and head through a canyon of tall buildings. Parallel to the ‘L’ tracks, the clickity-clack of the trains as they slow down for the station echo throughout. Walking over vent grates in the sidewalk either gives a blast of heat or a whiff of smells we aren’t familiar with out in the country. Delivery trucks are everywhere, bringing all the supplies that this little city within the ‘Windy City’ needs.

Crossing at the light at Harrison St. finally brings us to the Radiation Clinic. Through the sliding double doors; align your face with the temp check device (which has it in for Suzanne); confirm her name & birthdate to the staff that knows her by her first name, and she is all checked in and ready for her radiation treatment.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7