Happy day to all! Hope you are enjoying your weekend and are ready to make this a great week. Things with me are flowing very well. I have been too busy, though, which I am paying for with another flu. Coins for Cancer has now launched into the St. John’s/Mount Pearl community, we did so two St. John’s Maple Leafs games this weekend. We had our big coin collector, which is a beautiful piece of work, and many small collectors armed with students and members of my incredibly supportive family and friends. No totals as to the dollar amount of coin collected, but we gave away nearly 2,000 ribbons for a great start to the community portion of our drive.
http://www.realtimecancer.org/coincollector.htm , will bring you to the snapshot of the big coin collector named “Clark,” after Clark Kent, a.k.a. Superman, the Man of Steel! All else on my front is great. I saw my doc this week and am losing weight a little again, down to 185 now, which is no big deal as I think I’m getting used to being a lightweight. And prior to this flu I was feeling the best I had felt ever, so hopefully some rest over the next couple of days will allow me to recoup.
Another quick reminder to everyone, and I mean everyone receiving this message: Victory Party is now less than a month away. It’s happening Friday, April 13th, and I would love to see you all there. I’ll continue to remind you all, and will give you more details as the date approaches. Have a great week and hope you enjoy today’s message.
Choice
Choice is one of those things that every single person on earth has, every one of us has the ability to choose. No matter our situation or status we all always have choices. How we make our choices obviously differs from person to person, but the option to choose is within everyone.
This lesson really hit home for the first time during Game 2 when a nurse of mine and I were discussing my new situation. She suggested that I was “learning to live with less,” and at the time I really thought that line described my situation very well. At the time I was learning to live with less energy, less strength and less health (or more pain, however you wish to look at it). At the time I thought “Yes, I do have the challenge to learn to live with less.” I don’t think that way anymore, and that is where this lesson has come.
I think that my challenge during Game 2, and all of my series, is learning to live “different.” I learned also to adjust my perspective and that from one point of view I was living with less but from another I was living with more — differently, but more. While I had less energy and less strength, and certainly less “health”, I also had much more time to think and reflect on my life, where I was, and where I wanted to go. My experience gave me exposure to many very important lessons, at least I decided they are important lessons, and I chose to learn from them. One of those lessons is the ability and presence, and I would suggest the necessity and importance, of personal choice in our lives.
I firmly believe we create our own reality, the choices we make in life provide us with our experience. Sometimes the connection between our choices and our experiences may be difficult to see, but I feel they are always there. I do believe that things happen for a reason, and when the reason isn’t apparent to me, I have learned to go inside and I can always find the answers and connection there.
This lesson of choice is fairly new to me in some respects. While I think I always knew that I had many choices, I didn’t have much trouble choosing between options, as in many cases I wouldn’t. I chose to do them all. Remember my challenge of balance. There are a couple of factors contributing to that mindset for me, the most prominent of which was that I always felt I could do it all. As I have grown, and yes matured, I have learned that you can’t do everything. I do believe that you can do anything, but not everything. I am a big believer in CAN, as opposed to “can’t”, as in I believe that I CAN do anything I want. The lesson has come from the fact that I can’t do everything I want, all the time. But by making my desired choices I believe that I CAN doing anything I choose.
During the summer before I was diagnosed I hadn’t learned this lesson regarding the “everything” component. I was playing roller hockey about 3 nights a week, soccer about 2-3 nights a week, and “playing” with my buddies 2-3 nights a week. I’m sure your math can figure out that I chose not to have many nights home relaxing. And I didn’t, I was in motion non-stop that summer and while I really enjoyed it, it was not a healthy state. And it certainly wasn’t something that I chose to sustain. In September, about 6-7 weeks before my diagnosis I chose to ease back my social/play schedule. Of course, I chose to do that so I could work more, which didn’t help with the balance, but I think it was a step in the right direction and a sign that I would have learned this lesson of “choice mixed with balance” eventually. My challenge provided the opportunity to learn the lesson a little earlier than I may have learned it otherwise.
As my energy and strength have begun to very slowly return, it has occurred to me that I would not choose to play roller hockey and soccer, and then to “play” with my buddies as I did that summer of ‘98. I would choose a more balanced approach, and I would probably choose between sports which is a brand new concept for me. As I said, growing up I always did, and was able to do most all of them the only choice was whether or not I wanted to participate, not if I had the time or resources (energy and financial).
We all have choices every day, and I have learned that thinking about them, really thinking about them, allows me to make choices that are much more aligned with my desired direction. I’m sure most of you have heard the line “life is 10 per cent what happens to me, and 90 per cent how I react to it.” I consider the 90 per cent to be the choices we make each and every day. I like to look at that thought as the 10 per cent is the part of life that happens “to you,” while the 90 per cent is the part of life that “you make happen.” I have always been a big fan of making life happen, instead of having life happen to me. My cancer challenge has provided the opportunity for me to learn and incorporate the concept of conscious choice into my life to a far greater level than ever before. By going inside and determining the things that are most important to me I am then able to make the choices consistent with my desired direction.
How many times have you said, “I didn’t have the time”? The reality is that you definitely had the time, what happened is that you chose to do other things. We all have the same amount of time each day, how we use it is our personal choice. I have found a big change in my perspective by simply saying “I didn’t make the time” as opposed to the “have time” thought. Just switching words has helped me switch my perspective. I think a lot of my choice lesson relates to responsibility versus blame. By taking responsibility for my time and choices my perspective of each day has shifted and now more than ever I choose to make life happen. We aren’t victims, we choose our path.
Keep making life happen.
Always…
Live Life. Love Life.
Geoff
