A couple of weeks back my neighbour got some bad news about her brother in law. He was diagnosed with secondary liver cancer. This week they found out it is in the bile ducts as the primary source with many metastasis. He’s 45. A runner. A dad of two young kids , 10 and 6. A husband. A son. Etc etc. Treatment will be about prolonging his life for those around him vs. for long term survival. It sucks . It makes me question life and how this awful disease strikes anywhere and anyone. Healthy young fit people. Why? Why?

I spent a lot of yesterday in a fog. I was sad for her and for her family . I tried to comfort her as much as possible. I used some advice from a mom at my daughters school who lost her 45 yr old husband last year to brain cancer. Three young kids, a full life still ahead of him. She said she could look at her day in two ways: positively or negatively but either way it did not change the outcome. I have taken that with me and used it when I needed to. It does help.

A week ago one of my best friends lost her mom to this horrible disease six weeks after diagnosis. It’s just so scary . I choose now to enjoy every moment of life as best I can. The little things we get so hung up on don’t matter. What matters is telling those around you how much you love them. Going out and taking in the sites and sounds around you. Buying that extra whatever because it makes you feel good. Exercising because you know it is good for you and makes you feel alive.

No matter what, life will take us on a journey. It’s hard to understand why cancer strikes who it does . I’ve been touched way too closely lately, but I am so thankful that my family is healthy and I am healthy.
Go out and live every day to the fullest. Life may be too short and we don’t even know it.