Five Done!

Five Year Mark! I complete 5 years cancer free. Now, I don’t have to see my oncologist for another year. Most cancer statistics stop at 5 years and leave people alone…and that’s as close to getting “cured” as one gets.

These have been five remarkable years. Not because getting diagnosed with cancer gave me any special insights or sparks of wisdom or spirituality. They have been remarkable because I chose to look back at all the remarkable things that happened in these five years. And in the forty six, since I was born.

Reaching an age ripe for a “mid-life” crisis, I wondered if my life had been worthwhile. Had I achieved anything at all? I questioned my raison d’être. Sought purpose in my life. 

Even Gautam Buddha took many many weeks to get enlightenment. I wasn’t going to find my answers in a bolt of lightning. So instead of seeking those answers, I decided to look back. As my 46 years played out before me, I realized that I had survived at least two life threatening situations that I knew of, grew up under the tutelage of wonderful mentors, had been blessed with a great family and cousins, got an education that bettered my own expectations, had some interesting work experiences which included brushes with a Miss India, the cops, goons, the courts, the taxman, (you can see how it goes downhill) and helping many people create a career along the way. I dealt with health and financial crises, married a person better than me, got an amazing kid who keeps my hopes for salvation alive, developed some of the most amazing lifelong friendships, traveled often, far and wide, lived in a decent home of my own…the list goes on. 

Now, I look beyond the 46 years. Not past-life therapy – just an existential recap, if you may: By an off chance, lightning struck a pool of muck a few billion years ago. Then I became one cell. Then somehow I became two. And then somehow after a few thousand years, I became a clump of cells. Then I grew fins. And a tail. And for some reason, I crawled onto land and grew legs. A few million years forward, I learnt to stand up straight. Then I lost some body hair, learnt to speak, draw and grow my own food. Then I used tools and created stuff. And then I came to be what I now know as me. 

Phew!!!! Talk about achievements! None of us are underachievers by any means. Nor has life not been worthwhile. It’s been a bigger roller coaster ride than any stretch of imagination. It just takes a bit of time.

And now, somehow, I will manage to live on in the next generation, and the next, and so on. Or I will become part of the next tree, and then its fruit, and then the bird that eats the fruit, and….you know how it goes.My answer did indeed, lie in a bolt of lightning! 

During these five years, this is how I have seen my life. It was my cure to the midlife crisis. Knowing that every moment is a gift of that chance lightning strike, and no moment is going to get wasted. It will lead to something more. Something better. Always worthwhile.

So, keep the party going, folks. It’s not ending anytime soon. And here is the perfect party song.