It is time to live deliberately

Another guest post from my friend Doug Banker.  Doug and I view cancer diagnosis and post treatment very similarly.  Doug was diagnosed with Prostate cancer a few years ago and has been enjoying the life changing experience that is the wakeup call with that message:

Yep, cancer sucks, from the initial diagnosis through treatment, cancer is definitely a life-changer.  It forces us to deal with some pretty hard realities.  It forces us to deal with our own mortality.  But, throughout the process there can be very positive aspects.  One of my favorite quotes is from Henry David Thoreau:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854) 

Poor Thoreau, he clearly never made it to Colorado.  I adapted the first line to read:

I went to the mountains because I wished to live deliberately…

The important thing here is that I have no intention of discovering when it comes time to die that I had not lived.  With the help of a few friends, cancer changed my life for the better.  My camera and I have spent a lot more time in the mountains; on foot; on bike; on skis; on snowshoes.  I’m grateful for the awakening…not for the disease.  But, at this stage, I plan on dying from something else.  It may be a different cancer, but at least it won’t be this one.

I guess I really am fortunate mine was caught early.  I have a young friend (about 28) named Meghan.  She is in the final stages of her cancer and probably doesn’t have long.  It doesn’t seem fair.

Or an old work acquaintance, Mark, who had brain cancer and lasted two years.  It doesn’t seem fair.  

Or a former boss, Carl, who was diagnosed with a lymphatic cancer and only lasted two weeks.  It doesn’t seem fair.

Why am I going to live when others are not?  I feel guilty about that, especially for Meghan who has so much to live for and should have had so much time. 

Yes, I have been lucky.  And, when it comes time for me to die I will NOT discover that I had not lived.  Thanks to my friends for that one!