I've just been reading through some forum posts, sympathising with people who (like me) are suffering through cancer, it's treatment, or it's side effects.
I made a casual remark in one of my replies, "love is the opposite of cancer"
I realise afterward that this is actually something that really resonates with me as an absolute truth. Enough that I wanted to articulate it, in the hopes that anyone else suffering through cancer might take it into their heart and carry it with a new strength.
Love is the opposite of cancer.
If you want to defy cancer, do not allow your life to be defined by how it ends, or by a disease. Be defined by the bonds you forge, by the beauty that you breathe into the world. Don't allow this disease to curdle your humanity and that seed of love you carry inside you.
Love. Love without hesitation. Love yourself. Forgive yourself. Be strong.
I realise that one of the things that's given me strength throughout my (quite unpleasant and unfinished) battle with cancer is the love I carry for my children, my wife, and my friends.
I think as you deal with a potentially terminal illness, there's an impulse to pull into yourself. To grieve, to be afraid, to be alone. I say defy that. Reach out. As Freddy Mercury sang it "find me, somebody to love"
Good luck all.
Kind Regards
Simon
