When I wake up in the morning, I usually spend some time doing a little meditation and then planning out what I want to accomplish for the day. But today was a little different. I couldn’t get out of my mind the last article that I had read the previous evening of a woman who died from metastatic breast cancer. She was so angry with all of the circumstances that had placed her in that position and the fact that she did not feel that enough was being done to help her and others like her who are also dealing with advanced breast cancer. Regardless of what I believe about this particular issue, I couldn’t get past the fact that this is all that I know about this woman and this is her legacy in my mind and that is sad.
I never met this woman and I don’t know her story. All I know is what she chose to share in her last article. However, it made me think about the impact that everything we choose to do has on those who are the recipients of our actions. Every word that I speak to someone and every action that I take will have an impact on those who receive them. If I greet a colleague in the hallways of my workplace with a big hug, that will have a profoundly different effect on them than had I turned my head and ignored them or walked in a different direction to avoid them. The same is true with the words that I choose to speak or write when I wish to impart some knowledge or feelings to others.
Over time, I have developed my own philosophies about life and how I choose to live it. I believe that everything happens for a reason and it is always for the best. This may sound rather absurd coming from someone who is not only a 2x breast cancer survivor but also a domestic abuse survivor who has had a loaded gun in her face on multiple occasions so let me explain. The life of every person will always be filled will lots of things that others term as good or bad. However, I have adopted a different approach and I ask myself “what can I learn from this” each time that something out of the norm happens. I might not always have an immediate understanding but I know that if I look at something in retrospect, I will understand how I have moved forward in my life as a result of everything that I have experienced.
This has led me to one place. I must always live in the moment. I need to understand the ramifications of everything that I say and do. I want to share with others the lessons that I have learned from life and let them know that there is no reason to treat anyone else with less dignity and respect than they want for themselves. We are all in this life together. I don’t want a single act or work that I do to end with anything other than something that is positive. I don’t want to go to bed at night without having apologized or setting straight anything that I have done or said to someone else that might have hurt them. I want to know that I did my best regardless of the circumstances or difficulties that I encountered. This is who I am and how I want to be remembered, if tomorrow never comes. And I want the very same for everyone else whose lives I have ever touched.