(no subject)
I just finished reading "It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life". It was about Lance Armstrong's battle with cancer and his journey through recovery. This book was, by far, the most moving book I've ever read. It almost made me cry. I felt as if I was there battling with him. It was like I was there winning the Tour. It was like my child was being born. Amazing.
What really hit me was the fact that so many of us, take for granted, the frailty of our lives, that we forget to seek out what is important for ourselves. A quote from the book, "You don't know it now, but we're the lucky ones.", shows that, even though cancer is a ravenous, relentless, indiscriminative disease, cancer patients and survivors get something that most of us don't: A hard look at "the truth"... ourselves. These people fear death like the rest of us. They stare death in the face when their doctor says, "You have cancer." These people's lives don't flash before their eyes, they relive it. Over and over and over again until they either die, or survive. These people, while fighting cancer, endure something far worse than death. They fear death. They fear that they haven't lived their lives the way they wanted. They are forced to look back and re-evaluate their entire lives. They get to enjoy the thoughts of the good things and they get to feel disappointment with the choices they could've made better. These people, for a short time, could be considered the living dead.
By no means am I trying to make cancer sound pitiful. What I'm trying to get out of my system is the fact that I've taken so much of my life for granted. I've evaluated and re-evaluated every mistake I've ever made in my life, turned it inside out and tortured myself with it. I've tossed aside the good things, the happy moments, the miracles in my life like they deserved me.
I've had it all wrong...
Life is about the positive. It's about enjoying your life entirely. It's about enjoying the good and the bad. It's about the challenges, the miracles, the rewards, and the reprocussions in our lives. It's about hope. It's about a bigger, more meaningful connection to a whole. Most of us live our lives worrying about our mutual funds, who is sleeping with who, the state of our union, and who is on the police blotter...
... Well F that...
I'm going to appreciate everything that comes to me as something that is meant to improve me.
What really hit me was the fact that so many of us, take for granted, the frailty of our lives, that we forget to seek out what is important for ourselves. A quote from the book, "You don't know it now, but we're the lucky ones.", shows that, even though cancer is a ravenous, relentless, indiscriminative disease, cancer patients and survivors get something that most of us don't: A hard look at "the truth"... ourselves. These people fear death like the rest of us. They stare death in the face when their doctor says, "You have cancer." These people's lives don't flash before their eyes, they relive it. Over and over and over again until they either die, or survive. These people, while fighting cancer, endure something far worse than death. They fear death. They fear that they haven't lived their lives the way they wanted. They are forced to look back and re-evaluate their entire lives. They get to enjoy the thoughts of the good things and they get to feel disappointment with the choices they could've made better. These people, for a short time, could be considered the living dead.
By no means am I trying to make cancer sound pitiful. What I'm trying to get out of my system is the fact that I've taken so much of my life for granted. I've evaluated and re-evaluated every mistake I've ever made in my life, turned it inside out and tortured myself with it. I've tossed aside the good things, the happy moments, the miracles in my life like they deserved me.
I've had it all wrong...
Life is about the positive. It's about enjoying your life entirely. It's about enjoying the good and the bad. It's about the challenges, the miracles, the rewards, and the reprocussions in our lives. It's about hope. It's about a bigger, more meaningful connection to a whole. Most of us live our lives worrying about our mutual funds, who is sleeping with who, the state of our union, and who is on the police blotter...
... Well F that...
I'm going to appreciate everything that comes to me as something that is meant to improve me.