Lesson #2 | You can get cancer and get hit by a bus

As I was leaving a doctor’s appointment (there were so many all of a sudden), feeling quite low, I waited to cross the street. In my slightly dazed state, a bus flew by. Super close, like centimetres away. That's when I realised that I could have cancer AND get hit by a bus.

Now, before you go and judge me… this was a really powerful moment of perspective and gratitude.

What this moment reminded me, in an instant, was that: My kids were beautiful and healthy, my friends should win the Nobel Prize for human support; that my family was holding me with all their might; I live in a kind, rich, developed country; science is working to keep me alive… I am here! That moment taught me to respect the low but to see the highs and to live with the paradox of both. Knowing it can get worse, allowed me to see the 'haves' of the now.

In this world there is no Gantt chart where adversity is measured out in bits, scattered gently across time based on efficiencies. Nope. You are human. The story is ALL the moments. That particular moment taught me to remember that you can have cancer and get hit by a bus.