Please watch this video when you have 25 minutes to focus, listen and absorb. And you may want to have tissues at the ready.
But this kid? He's going to teach you about living, not dying.
"Try and make people happy. Maybe you have to learn it with time, maybe you have to learn it the hard way, but as long as you learn it, you're going to make the world a better place".
~Zach Zobiech
As as person in long term recovery from cancer and alcoholism, I have my share of days where I shake my fists at the heavens and ask, "why me?"
Those are not good days. I have zero control over the fact that I have these two life long diagnoses. Sometimes I get filled with fear, anger and regret. I wallow in self-pity.
And when I get this way? I'm more miserable. Little by little, I'm learning to lean into the hardships - actually, more than that - I'm learning to embrace them. I learn so much more from my difficulties. Without them, I wouldn't have most of the blessings I have in my life today. And I have so many blessings.
I'm at a point now where I can say that I'm grateful for cancer. I'm grateful for alcoholism. Because without these experiences I would forget to treasure life.
Of course this doesn't mean I treasure every second of every day. I don't think anyone can do that, can they? But instead of playing the no-winner game of "what if?" or "why me?", when I'm able to lean into emotional pain, to wrap my arms around the Suffering Me and tell her I love her ... then I'm not owned by pain (thank you, Courtney, for our conversation last night that gave me this beautiful image). It simply becomes part of what makes me, well, me.
Thank you, Zach Zobiech, for your light, your life and your example.
You live on and on and on in all the people you touched. Including me.
I posted this to my Facebook page. Thanks so much for sharing this wonderfully inspiring story.
ReplyDeleteThank you for finding and posting this video. It's so touching. I'm so glad to read you say you are grateful for cancer, for alcoholism. I don't know why the worst things that happen to us can also teach us the most, but I agree... I've also come to that place of being grateful for having had cancer. When I say that I don't think people believe me. It's hard to think of cancer as a blessing, but nonetheless, in some unexplainable way, aren't we blessed? As the video mentions...life is richer as a result. It deepens us. The video is so inspiring. You, too, inspire me.
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