[2023-02-18] Saturday Synopsis #31
3 Ideas From Me
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it." Though [Helen] Keller was not likely speaking of illness when she shared these words, I found them very applicable to cancer. We often hear that someone has been diagnosed with cancer—a disease inextricably associated with suffering—without, perhaps, hearing of their overcoming it. Or we hear of the person who died following a battle with cancer without having been aware that they had been diagnosed with it in the first place. On other occasions, we learn that an individual is a cancer survivor, having faced and overcome the disease before we knew them. What came to mind upon reading this quote is how often we hear only one part of the story: the beginning or the end, and, even less often, the middle. I believe that there is value in seeing the full arc of someone's experience of living with cancer, especially if the tale is told in real time. We would hear of the diagnosis, imagining all the challenges ahead. But we would also be able to follow along with the treatment, perhaps learning a thing or two about how much or how little suffering it entails, at least for that one person. And then we would witness the outcome of the treatment.
Whether you're young and trying to determine what you want to do in life or you're older and still figuring it out, give yourself permission to explore your passions and to acquire various skills. Doing so makes for a more interesting and fulfilling career and life.
I love useful questions or short statements that help me break out of a cycle of indecision, worry or obsession. Here are some of my favourites:...
- There's no way out but through....
- Happy always comes back.
- It can't rain forever.
- The challenges I face are the price of being alive....
- My peace is more important.
- It always seems impossible until it's done....
- When the big things feel out of control, focus on what you love right under your nose....
- Just put on your shoes and get out the door.
- Things will get better. You will make them better.
- The best days are yet to come.
Here's one more that sums up my day: Never underestimate the impact of small acts done with love.
2 Quotes From Others
"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."
~ Morrie Schwartz, Tuesdays with Morrie
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
~ Theodore Roosevelt
1 Question For You
In what ways have you dared greatly?
