The Most Important Lesson?

The last week has seen a couple of reasonably high profile local deaths as a result of cancer.


Last Thursday, Kiwi racing driver Jason Richards succumbed after a very brave 14 month fight and just yesterday Natalie Murphy, the young Auckland mum whose plight captured the hearts of many, also passed away.  


Both these victims were young being in their mid-30s, and both put up a bloody good fight, living every day to its potential and delivering what I consider to be an important message.


I appreciate this posting might come across a bit "heavy" and quite honestly I probably wouldn't be so passionate about it if I hadn't been through a battle with cancer myself, but I did and now I feel I have to do what I can to get people to appreciate how precious life is.  So, I'll make no apologies.


I'll never really understand how I  came to be lucky enough to be one of those chosen to be a survivor, but I'm just bloody grateful I was.  I've said on many occasions how I'm now living my second chance and treat every day as something precious.  Life is for living, not for moaning about what-ifs.  


So, why do so many people not embrace the privilege that is good health?  You never know when your number is going to come up, so surely you owe it to yourself, and all those that you love and who love you, to make the most of every day and be the best person you can.


To just go through the motions and moan about "everything" is existing not living.  Sure, some people have been dealt a cruel hand, but by-in-large they are also the fighters who don't wallow in self-pity.  Why do people expect good things to happen to them or for others to support them because they have a "woe-is-me" outlook?


I have a very close friend who has been dealt the double blow of redundancy and pretty serious health scares this year, but they aren't just curled up in a ball waiting for somebody else to fix it for them.  No, they are getting on with life and making the best of what cards they've been dealt.  Sure, things are bloody hard for them, but they know others are worse off.


I said early this year that I now have a "new normal" and my tolerance for negative people was now pretty non-existent.  Not surprisingly, I continue to observe people who do nothing to better their situation/outlook by carrying on about how tough things are for them, while doing nothing to try and change it.  I don't think I actively seek them out, but I can't avoid them either.


I dare these people to front up to the families of Jason Richards, Natalie Murphy (or even my family for that matter) and try to extract sympathy from them.  These people have lost loved ones who epitomised the most important lesson of life - life itself is a gift, not a right, and as such is worth fighting for with everything you have.  


Terminal illness will always win on the sympathy stakes (and so it should) and never more so than when the patient is doing everything they can do to fight for every last minute with their loved ones.


While this is the season of goodwill, I must admit to finding it a bit harder than normal to show tolerance for the moaners of society.


Please, all I ask of you is to stop and take a look at your life.  Think about how lucky you are to be alive and start to make some changes (if you need to) so that you become one of those positive people who enjoy the gift that way too many people are currently taking for granted.