1. Life’s Biggest Lesson (so far)

Most mornings at home we brew some tea and read aloud to each from a book containing astrological, tarot and numerology insights for the day. Part of the practice is a ritual or sometimes a writing prompt. Today’s reading prompted me to contact three friends and ask “what is the greatest lesson you’ve learned so far in life?” I texted three friends. One friend called and the other two texted back. None of the three offered a quick answer to my prompt. Maybe they are still contemplating it. But it was good to hear from all three of them. Maybe good to get them thinking.

Later in the day I went out for a hike up a steep hill in back of our home. On the hike I was thinking about a book that I’ve started to write. I’ve been thinking about writing this book for a couple years now. I recently completed the outline for the book, but I’m challenged to sit down and write with any consistency. I only have about 5000 words so far. I’ll need another 150,000 or so to make it legit. It’s a book about the greatest lesson I’ve learned in my life so far. And then it hit me. The book I’m writing is based on the exact same prompt I read this morning. It’s the same prompt that I sent to three of my friends. It’s something that I’ve thought about and have been working on for years.

As I huffed and puffed up the hill toward the top of the power lines, I realized my book idea and the writing prompt from this morning were exactly the same thing. I’ve been struggling to find the time to write on a daily basis. So I thought, why not answer the prompt today and just write a blog post? It could be the introduction to the book. Subsequent blog posts could be chapters in the book.

The book is about living mindfully with terminal stage 4 cancer, and the original title was Cancer: Life’s Biggest Lesson (so far). I came up with that title years ago. I have since changed the title to OMG We’re All Gonna Die: Living Mindfully with Stage 4 Cancer.

At this point I need to let you know that the book I speak of, and this blog post, are not fiction. In fact, depending on when you are reading this, I may already be dead.

But also know this, I’ve had a great life and the lessons learned from having terminal cancer have been extraordinary, insightful, life-changing, motivating, inspiring and delightful. I have gained wisdom that I believe I could not have learned anywhere else. I’ve done things I never thought I could do. One of them is living mindfully with this disease that will kill me at some point. My hope is that as I share my stories through these blog posts I might inspire you to take stock of your life and be inspired to learn to live more mindfully, whether or not you have terminal cancer. It’s not easy. But if I can do it, maybe you can too.

There are a few key players in my story. Mainly, but not exclusively, my wife, my urologist, and my meditation teacher. You will hear more about them as my story unfolds.

In the meantime, sit back, grab some tissues, and come along for the ride, my ride, our ride. We’ll travel back and take a look back at when I was diagnosed 3 years ago and we’ll travel together perhaps into what lies ahead. We’ll talk soon. Thanks for reading.