WHAT A MAJOR MEDICAL WAKE UP CALL TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIVING LIFE WITHOUT REGRETS
How I used a terrifying medical diagnosis to wake up to a fresh perspective on making the most of life’s precious opportunities
THE DAWNING LIGHT—Daily Journal Of Transformational Writing
Volume 8, Issue # 872 for Thursday, April 4, 2024
SPIRITUAL SOUP KITCHEN Section # 111 Stories by Chinmayan about using the challenges and blessings of daily life as your spiritual path
All images in this story gratefully used courtesy of Pixabay
WHAT A MAJOR MEDICAL WAKE UP CALL TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIVING LIFE WITHOUT REGRETS
How I used a terrifying medical diagnosis to wake up to a fresh perspective on making the most of life’s precious opportunities.
A LIFE CHANGING MEETING WITH YOUR DOCTOR
Imagine this scene for a moment….
You go in to get your annual check up with your doctor, thinking that, as usual, you are in good health with nothing to worry about.
You have always taken good care of yourself, eating well and exercising every day, avoiding all the bad habits many struggle with, from drugs, drinking or smoking.
You have finally achieved the life you always dreamed of having, with a good job, great marriage and a beautiful home.
The day after the battery of tests are done, which include X Ray scans, Ultrasound and full body image scans, you get a call from the doctor’s office requesting that you come in as soon as possible to meet with your doctor, to discuss some issues that have shown up in the tests.
You are unconcerned because your body feels good and healthy, but of course, you schedule a meeting for the next day.
As you sit in the examination room, all you can think about is the party you are going to that evening.
When the doctor does come, you notice that a nurse is with him, and both have solemn looks on their faces.
He sits down across from you and pauses to look at you compassionately.
Suddenly you are alert and present, for you sense that something is very wrong.
The doctor leans closer and says “There is no way to tell you this except to be straight. Our tests turned up some things that we must have missed on previous exams because your condition was just in the beginning stages. But unfortunately, it is now clear that you have a very aggressive form of stage four cancer that is too advanced to be treated…”
In that moment, your entire focus of life shifts as you try to take in and process what he is saying to you, as your mind reels and you think “This can’t be right!”
You ask the doctor, “Are you sure? This has got to be a mistake!”
The doctor replies, “Believe me, I wish it was a mistake, but due to these test results, we find the cancer is spreading too rapidly for any treatment to be effective.”
Now, with your heart racing and your mind scrambling to make sense of it all, you ask the inevitable question, “How long do I have before it kills me?”
The doctor is uncomfortable, and the nurse is looking at you with pity in her eyes,
“Well, we can’t be sure, but in similar cases, the patient rarely survives longer than six months.”
The nurse hands you a packet of information and says, “If I were you, use the time you have left to put your affairs in order, arrange for hospice care and make all the necessary arrangements.”
As you get up to leave, the scope and focus of your entire life has just been dramatically and permanently shifted in the past two minutes, as you struggle to come to terms with the fact that your life is going to end much sooner than you expected.
I WENT THROUGH A FEW WEEKS BELIEVING THAT I HAD A FATAL HEART DISEASE
I know something about the realities of the scene I have just sketched out.
Last year, due to some faulty medical equipment and misdiagnosis by an intern, I went through a few weeks of believing that I probably had the same fatal heart disease that seems to run in my family.
I was face to face with thinking my life was under active threat, like the person in this story.
In the end, my case was assigned to the best heart specialist in the rural county where we live, and, after rounds of tests of all kinds, he finally gave me a clean bill of health.
I was greatly relieved to hear him say “Its true that someday you will die, but it certainly won’t be from problems with your heart, which is in near perfect condition.”
WHAT I LEARNED AND CHANGED FROM GOING THROUGH THIS MAJOR WAKE UP CALL
But I still learned many lessons from going through this experience.
I realized how very precious life really is when confronted with thinking mine would be over much sooner than I had expected.
I realized I couldn’t allow anything to continue delaying me from focusing on the real work of my heart, which is and always has been to be a transformational writer and make a positive difference for others and the world through the full activation of my talents and abilities.
I realized that however many years I may have left on earth, there are fewer and fewer of them in front of me, while most of them have already gone.
Every day that passes is one day closer to my last one.
I realized I did not want to arrive at my last day on earth with a heavy heart full of regrets and what ifs.
I realized that I had just been given a major wakeup call and shake up that was way too powerful to ignore.
Ever since, I have been boldly and courageously moving out to fully live the life my heart has always been calling for…
Which to me means using my precious time, energy and attention consciously focused on the truly important things in my life…
Such as devoting most of my days to serving others through transformational writing and publishing…
to being more attentive and loving with my circle of beloveds…
…being much more focused on my spiritual practices and developing an ever-deeper relationship with God.
…and moving out to do the major restoration project here at our Still Mountain Dharma Center…so that we will soon be able to reopen for public programs, classes, courses and events.
BY ACCEPTING OUR OWN MORTALITY, WE CAN BUILD A MEANINGFUL LIFE AND FACE DYING WITH A SMILE
My teacher Kalu Rinpoche would often say “Always remember that the time of your death is uncertain—That you never know which will come first…tomorrow or the next world. Since nothing but the dharma is even a hair tip’s help at the time of death, practice the dharma and serve the world without delay!”
So, my dear friend, how would you respond and what changes would you make if you suddenly were told your life was going to end a lot sooner than you had believed? How would this information shift your priorities?
My question to you is…why wait? Why not make whatever changes are needed now, while you still have your health, a sound mind and all your latent powers and talents….so that you can depart this world without regrets.
Believe me, I know how hard it is to even think about dying. I admit that I went through periods of being absolutely terrified and afraid in ways far more intense than anything I had ever gone through.
I am grateful because those experiences shook me to the core and woke me up.
My teachers say that through confronting the realities of our own mortality in the very midst of our lives now, we can choose to live meaningfully so that when our time comes, we can face death with a smile.
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“Your greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!” Ramana Maharshi
“When you change the way you think about things, and the things you think about change”
—Wayne Dyer
“I see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken.” —Ram Das
Carry on my friend, your words resonate with us.