Colds suck, but they’re part of life.

I’m not ungrateful for my health when healthy, but having a cold definitely makes me long for the simplicity of being able to breathe easily out of both nostrils again.

I’ve encountered a handful of oncology patients in my life. I cannot even begin to imagine what their journey must be like. But during our interactions, one thread was common for all of them: they had a sense of joy and gratitude that I don’t sense as often at all in healthy people. I’d imagine that sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom for us to realize how good life actually is. Maybe it’s like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – when our health is mediocre, okay, or acceptable, we can brush it aside and stress about bills, the next vacation, or the weekend that seems so far away. But when health and cancer treatment becomes the main focus of someone’s life, then all the truly unimportant things in life finally do seem unimportant, and there is now space to appreciate the simple and truly significant things.

Maybe we don’t HAVE to hit rock bottom though. Maybe we can spend more energy and awareness on how good life is right now. Did you wake up this morning? Lungs working? Heart beating? We are infinitely lucky to be ALIVE! How can you best actively, intentionally, purposefully LIVE this summer?