For much of our lives we go about assuming that today will be like yesterday, and tomorrow will be like today. We feel safe.
But when things like cancer come out of nowhere, we lose that sense of safety – and we lose our confidence about tomorrow.
The truth is, we never really had the promise of tomorrow, or that things would stay the same. We just got lulled into believing it because things had been stable for so long.
But cancer taught us the truth – that life is constantly changing, difficult and unpleasant things sometimes happen, and the future is uncertain for us all.
Learning to live happily after a disruption like cancer requires us to learn (or remember) that life is uncertain, the present moment is precious, and fear comes from demanding to know more about tomorrow than any human is allowed to know.
Learning to live with uncertainty is as much a spiritual journey as a medical one, and every human being must learn it at one point or another.
Most people say the lesson is worth learning, and that life is richer afterwards.
