The last month and a half were very scary for me.
I don't know if I should go into details or not, but let's just say that I noticed some unusual things happening with my body, and so I went to see my primary care physician about it, and the first tests that the doctor did indicated that I might have cancer.
She then referred to a specialist, which as many of you know, takes a long time just for the initial visit to see them.
I looked up information about my possible cancer online and perhaps I read too much about it. I was terrified and worried that I was going to die soon, and at a rather early age for a death from cancer. But I also noticed that some people in their twenties had also recently been diagnosed with this form of cancer and were blogging about their horrible surgeries, chemotherapies, and radiation treatments, and all the bad things that come after those. I worried and worried and became extremely sad and anxious about what was ahead for me. The pain. The loss of the things I took for granted when I was healthy. Even just the simple things like being able to walk around and take care of my own basic needs. It was a real wake up call for me.
Fortunately, after seeing the specialist, who then ran a series of tests on me, the results came back negative for cancer.
I will never look at my life the same way again.
Everything has changed for me.
Here are some quotes that I have found which really helped me...
I hope they will help you, too.
You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted. ~Ruth E. Renkl
You may delay, but time will not. ~Benjamin Franklin
Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live. ~Nicolas de Chamfort
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may;
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.
~Robert Herrick
I try to treat each evening and weekend as little slices of retirement because no one is guaranteed a lengthy one at the end of their career. ~Mike Hammar
The more side roads you stop to explore, the less likely that life will pass you by. ~Robert Brault
If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks' vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days. ~Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Every day of our lives we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
Each day is an opportunity to travel back into tomorrow's past and change it. ~Robert Brault
If you could travel back in time to the present moment, what would you do differently? ~Robert Brault
Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got. ~Art Buchwald
If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance. ~Andrea Boydston
Life is always walking up to us and saying, "Come on in, the living's fine," and what do we do? Back off and take its picture. ~Russell Baker
There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want. ~Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half an hour. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Remember you must die whether you sit about moping all day long or whether on feast days you stretch out in a green field, happy with a bottle of Falernian from your innermost cellar. ~Horace
Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them. ~Dion Boucicault
Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending. ~Author Unknown
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. ~Rabindranath Tagore
The question for each man is not what he would do if he had the means, time, influence, and educational advantages, but what he will do with the things he has. ~Hamilton
Live as you will wish to have lived when you are dying. ~Christian Furchtegott Gellert
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Later never exists. ~Author Unknown
Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time. ~Johann von Goethe
That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet.
~Emily Dickinson
Let us endeavor to live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. ~Mark Twain
Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans. ~Allen Saunders, 1957
The value of moments, when cast up, is immense, if well employed; if thrown away, their loss is irrevocable. ~Lord Chesterfield
Lost time is never found again. ~Benjamin Franklin
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and for deeds left undone. ~Harriet Beecher Stowe, Little Foxes, 1865
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. ~William Shakespeare
Only that day dawns to which we are awake. ~Henry David Thoreau
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop to look around once in a while you could miss it. ~From the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The future has a way of arriving unannounced. ~George F. Will
Time goes, you say? Ah no!
Alas, Time stays, we go.
~Henry Austin Dobson
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. ~Hector Berlioz
You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now. ~Joan Baez
The follies which a man regrets most in his life are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity. ~Helen Rowland
What a folly to dread the thought of throwing away life at once, and yet have no regard to throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal. ~John Howe
The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. ~Author unknown, sometimes attributed to W.M. Lewis
Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons. ~Ruth Ann Schabacker
The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn't, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there. ~Monica Baldwin
We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. ~Japanese Proverb
Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is the special occasion. ~Author Unknown
Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. ~Charles Richards
Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite. Or waiting around for Friday night or waiting perhaps for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil or a better break or a string of pearls or a pair of pants or a wig with curls or another chance. Everyone is just waiting. ~Dr. Seuss
Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think. ~Chinese Proverb
Live every day as if it were your last and then some day you'll be right. ~H.H. "Breaker" Morant
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. ~Elbert Hubbard
As you grow older, you'll find the only things you regret are the things you didn't do. ~Zachary Scott
Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you. ~Annie Dillard
Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today. ~James Dean
Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways. ~Stephen Vincent Benét
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. ~George Santayana, "War Shrines," Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, 1922
For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. ~Fr. Alfred D'Souza
Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead. ~Scottish Proverb
I'm less interested in why we're here. I'm wholly devoted to while we're here. ~Erika Harris
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see. ~John Burroughs
You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it. ~Charles Buxton
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known. Garrison Keillor
US humorist & radio broadcaster (1942 - )
I don't know if I should go into details or not, but let's just say that I noticed some unusual things happening with my body, and so I went to see my primary care physician about it, and the first tests that the doctor did indicated that I might have cancer.
She then referred to a specialist, which as many of you know, takes a long time just for the initial visit to see them.
I looked up information about my possible cancer online and perhaps I read too much about it. I was terrified and worried that I was going to die soon, and at a rather early age for a death from cancer. But I also noticed that some people in their twenties had also recently been diagnosed with this form of cancer and were blogging about their horrible surgeries, chemotherapies, and radiation treatments, and all the bad things that come after those. I worried and worried and became extremely sad and anxious about what was ahead for me. The pain. The loss of the things I took for granted when I was healthy. Even just the simple things like being able to walk around and take care of my own basic needs. It was a real wake up call for me.
Fortunately, after seeing the specialist, who then ran a series of tests on me, the results came back negative for cancer.
I will never look at my life the same way again.
Everything has changed for me.
Here are some quotes that I have found which really helped me...
I hope they will help you, too.
You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted. ~Ruth E. Renkl
You may delay, but time will not. ~Benjamin Franklin
Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live. ~Nicolas de Chamfort
Gather ye rose-buds while ye may;
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.
~Robert Herrick
I try to treat each evening and weekend as little slices of retirement because no one is guaranteed a lengthy one at the end of their career. ~Mike Hammar
The more side roads you stop to explore, the less likely that life will pass you by. ~Robert Brault
If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks' vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days. ~Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Every day of our lives we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
Each day is an opportunity to travel back into tomorrow's past and change it. ~Robert Brault
If you could travel back in time to the present moment, what would you do differently? ~Robert Brault
Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got. ~Art Buchwald
If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance. ~Andrea Boydston
Life is always walking up to us and saying, "Come on in, the living's fine," and what do we do? Back off and take its picture. ~Russell Baker
There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want. ~Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half an hour. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Remember you must die whether you sit about moping all day long or whether on feast days you stretch out in a green field, happy with a bottle of Falernian from your innermost cellar. ~Horace
Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them. ~Dion Boucicault
Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending. ~Author Unknown
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. ~Rabindranath Tagore
The question for each man is not what he would do if he had the means, time, influence, and educational advantages, but what he will do with the things he has. ~Hamilton
Live as you will wish to have lived when you are dying. ~Christian Furchtegott Gellert
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Later never exists. ~Author Unknown
Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time. ~Johann von Goethe
That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet.
~Emily Dickinson
Let us endeavor to live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. ~Mark Twain
Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans. ~Allen Saunders, 1957
The value of moments, when cast up, is immense, if well employed; if thrown away, their loss is irrevocable. ~Lord Chesterfield
Lost time is never found again. ~Benjamin Franklin
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and for deeds left undone. ~Harriet Beecher Stowe, Little Foxes, 1865
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. ~William Shakespeare
Only that day dawns to which we are awake. ~Henry David Thoreau
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop to look around once in a while you could miss it. ~From the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The future has a way of arriving unannounced. ~George F. Will
Time goes, you say? Ah no!
Alas, Time stays, we go.
~Henry Austin Dobson
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. ~Hector Berlioz
You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now. ~Joan Baez
The follies which a man regrets most in his life are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity. ~Helen Rowland
What a folly to dread the thought of throwing away life at once, and yet have no regard to throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal. ~John Howe
The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. ~Author unknown, sometimes attributed to W.M. Lewis
Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons. ~Ruth Ann Schabacker
The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn't, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there. ~Monica Baldwin
We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. ~Japanese Proverb
Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is the special occasion. ~Author Unknown
Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. ~Charles Richards
Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite. Or waiting around for Friday night or waiting perhaps for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil or a better break or a string of pearls or a pair of pants or a wig with curls or another chance. Everyone is just waiting. ~Dr. Seuss
Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think. ~Chinese Proverb
Live every day as if it were your last and then some day you'll be right. ~H.H. "Breaker" Morant
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. ~Elbert Hubbard
As you grow older, you'll find the only things you regret are the things you didn't do. ~Zachary Scott
Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you. ~Annie Dillard
Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today. ~James Dean
Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways. ~Stephen Vincent Benét
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. ~George Santayana, "War Shrines," Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, 1922
For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. ~Fr. Alfred D'Souza
Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead. ~Scottish Proverb
I'm less interested in why we're here. I'm wholly devoted to while we're here. ~Erika Harris
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see. ~John Burroughs
You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it. ~Charles Buxton
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known. Garrison Keillor
US humorist & radio broadcaster (1942 - )
341 Meeting 12-16-2010 
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