Life is precious, no matter what; but it could be worse

One quiet afternoon I decide to be true to character and reminisce from old literature. A story of a breast cancer patient, Adriana Jenkins, in a Reader’s Digest magazine of October 2002, who was given only a 40 per cent chance of remaining cancer-free in the first five years, makes for good reading as I postpone thinking of what to do with these old magazines.

From being fed intravenously with Herceptin and Navelbine plus the old treatments of mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation, also known as slash, poison and burn, she consciously chooses life over death. Twenty weeks of Adriamycin and Taxol come in with hair loss, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, sores and diarrhoea. Extra heartbeats are noted in her case and a gut call by a doctor pulls her from the tests, driven only by a conviction and reminder of the Hippocratic oath; do no harm. This saves her life.

Through heaviness and weariness, she finally realises how precious life is. Drawing up a list of things she has been meaning to do, she is finally able to spend four days on the beach with her husband — a man she wed just before surgery. She has no regrets as she writes:

“This situation, as bad as it is, has made me view life in a different way. That work is work —not life. That I should not be thinking: “I’ll do that one day”, but to do things now and not wait; to appreciate the people in my life — to appreciate everyone as much as possible; to make sure I have as few regrets as possible”.

I REALISE THAT MY EYES HAVE CLOUDED OVER AS I come to the end of the write-up. I think of how much time we waste in life, yet the very knowledge of its preciousness is left in us by our maker at creation; always knowing, but never quite perceiving. Life is really quite simple. What has been, is and cannot be changed, but can only be handled and lived with. What lies ahead might be manipulated to a humanly extent

We might now find ourselves in situations that threaten to overwhelm us and in such moments, it pays to take some time and really discern if the unfairness of it all is not something we are crafting in our minds. Each one of us has been created to go through certain situations, which can be tolerated only by our manipulative perceptions. No burden is too heavy to carry because if it is on our shoulders, then it is squarely where it was purposed to be; always in the knowledge that it could yet be worse.

Perseverance is strongly advocated for in life and especially of the things that we cannot change. Anything that is happening to us is known by our maker, but we solely remain responsible for our reactions. God knows exactly what he is doing when he allows us to go through what we are going through.

It is left to us to live as much as we can, to appreciate the beauty that we can let our eyes pick out, no matter how groggy, weakened or dissatisfied we are with our present circumstances; because somebody somewhere is having it worse than ourselves. It is the onus of every living being to make music for themselves in life; the kind that only they hear, the kind that makes sense to them only, the kind whose tune only they can dance to because life is precious no matter what; and it could be worse.