Life Is Too Short

Yet more cancer is invading our family. Just a few weeks ago, all was going along smoothly. Everyone was involved in their own lives, their own schedules, their own stuff. Then we get the call. A family member has suffered a stroke, has been taken by ambulance to a hospital, and then flown by helicopter to a bigger hospital. Our hearts skip a few beats, the tears start and then the panic. After tests, tests, tests it is discovered that this family member has suffered a bleed in the brain - but it was caused by a cancer that the oncologist refers to as "aggressive." It cannot be stopped. Chemo will make it spread. Either out of kindness or because they don't want to overwhelm us, they only tell us of four locations the melanoma is: brain, lung, pancreas and lymph nodes. What they keep from us is the cancer is also in the liver, the kidneys, and other organs. So all our lives have now changed course. Instead of being involved in our own stuff, we have a single focus, a firm resolve to spend as much time as possible with our beloved family member. Caring for physical needs, responding to emotional needs, searching for direction, treasuring each precious moment - as painful as they are. We want more time but at what cost to the one who is suffering?

This has narrowed our focus as to what is important. The things we surround ourselves with are, after all, just things. We can become petty and vindictive, desperately trying to hold on to the "stuff" when in reality we just want to hold onto the person and rail at the unfairness of it all.

So live your life in such a way that if a loved one is snatched from you too soon, you will have no regrets that you left things unsaid or undone. Because now, more than ever, life is too short to sweat the small stuff!