7/17/16 – Am I crazy to want to celebrate the 8th
Anniversary of the day I was diagnosed with cancer? One would think that I
would want erase the memory of such an awful day from my memory. But I would
tell you this is absolutely a day to celebrate. I feel the need to celebrate
the battle, celebrate that fight, celebrate that I have endured, celebrate that
I survived, and most of all celebrate that I am still here.
If my Adventures with mantle cell lymphoma have taught me
anything it is that every day is a gift. A gift that we should never take for
granted. With each day I truly feel that we need to make the most of it, focus our
time on what matters and never sweat the small stuff… and we should never carry
grudges… we should always have forgiveness in our hearts… Life is too short... Relationships
with our loves ones, family and friend are just so valuable. We should always
show our love and appreciation for them and never let small differences bring
harm to our relationships.
We hear that we need to work hard to achieve the American dream.
I would argue that what we really need to do is to LOVE HARD… and keep peace,
love and happiness in our lives.
On Saturday, July 16th my beautiful bride of 31 years
and myself went into to New York City for lunch at Carmines and to see a
Broadway play in celebration of my 8th Anniversary. We had an
awesome day. We saw “The School of Rock”…. What an entertaining and enjoyable
play. This was especially a happy celebration being the past year was a pretty
tough one with chemo, unplanned hospital visits, issues with blood counts, ITP,
and more… If you think about it was less than a year ago that my heart stopped,
I was a code blue, I was knocking on heaven’s door… BUT I am here now… feeling great, feeling the best I have in a while…
I am alive and well… so you bet I am going to celebrate.
If you are reading this blog as someone who is a fight with cancer
(or knows someone in a fight), please know that in the past 8 years I have had
many days where I have felt fantastic… and I certainly plan to have many, many
more. This is a fight that is well worth it and although there may be times
when it is hard… this does pass and there will be great times ahead. Keep the
faith, keep the hope and BE POSITIVE.
Here are YouTube links to a couple of great songs of
encouragement and inspiration by Switchfoot.
“Dark Horses” – a song about never giving up
“Live It Well” – a song about focusing on what matter in life
This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be
glad in it.
Psalm 118:24,
