God sure works in mysterious ways and his timing is impeccable! As I was sitting here, getting ready to start writing a post on a different subject, I received an e-mail from my friend Bousse. She told me about her friend, Dan, who has terminal AML Leukemia. Dan has documented his journey on film and it is a deep and beautiful artistic expression of his adventure through life and through his diagnosis. I immediately went to his site to watch a video clip. It’s about living the race against time, where he finds himself madly tying to unlock his “secret” mind-surrendering to life, love, faith and the creative process.
I was blown away! I felt very inspired by his courage and his passion to live life NOW! Watching the video also brought back some memories to the time I was given my diagnosis. It was right there and then when I had to make the choice of how I was going to live the rest of my life.
We can embrace it and realize that each day is a gift, or we can do the opposite. Sometimes I feel that cancer can be a very precious gift to many of us, as it forces out of our rut and injects some aliveness into us – it wakes us up! Like Dan, my father also embraced his diagnosis. He used to say “I will take care of the mental part, let my doctor take care of the medical part.” He went on to beat his cancer 5 times. More than ever now, I am so assured that it is up to us (and God). My diagnosis was when I started living.
I invite you to visit Dan’s website. He is hosting a benefit for blood cancer on Sunday, February 15th, in Vancouver, B.C. You’ll get to view his film, and all donations go to blood-cancer research. For those of you that want to help in other ways, I encourage you to donate blood if you can. Visit Red Cross or Blood Centers to get further information. According to America’s Blood Centers, more than 4.5 million patients need blood transfusions each year. Did you know it only takes one pint of blood to save three lives? It really makes us realize how little we have to do to help save a life.
Here is to Living La Vida NOW!
Are you currently fighting cancer? Please share your stories, comments and opinions.
