One step leads to the next and so on
One step is all you need to take and that step will lead to another. There is value in recognizing that what your life has been up until now still is. The life you have created doesn’t just disappear or evaporate. All the good you’ve done in the world continues to exist and evolve.
Take this diagnosis and lifechanging information and allow your life to include and become the opportunity you are being presented. Disease and illness are not outside of our real lives. If we can live well, we can live well with disease.
Consider reading the classic book by Norman Cousins, “Anatomy of an Illness.”
Consider my friend Linda, who had ovarian cancer. Her beloved adult daughter accompanied her to chemo treatments, where they set up a TV and watched comedy movies together, laughing through it all.
Consider Ben Petrick, diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s at age 22. He continued playing professional baseball for five seasons, hiding his symptoms and adapting in order to play his best game. He had a successful career and then he retired and says he continues to have a good life with Parkinson’s.
Nobody knows how their life will end up. There is no plan that can cover every possibility.
Time and time again, life has proven to me that discovering only what the next step is, and taking that step, is the way toward a great life. All the best-laid plans cannot compare to this strategy in setting one up for successful outcomes.
Making plans is not a bad thing in itself. Adhering to those plans, over what reality presents, is not an effective way to live, with or without disease.
Living with disease and illness can be a path to learning effective ways of living.
What has disease or illness taught you?