Recovering from Chemo and Serious Illness:

Life Lessons

by

Michael Krepon
Dedicated to my mentors, especially Richard M. Clarke,
and to you, Dear Readers.

Copyright 2009, Michael Krepon

2
 PREFACE

Painful detours aren’t required to learn life lessons, but the two often go
together. Traumatic experiences force us to break from established routines.
They provide ample time to think, and can prompt long-postponed internal
conversations and conversations with loved ones. Personal traumas can shake
us to the core. They can lead to new perspectives and new priorities.

The most serious crisis a person can face is a life-threatening illness. The crooked
path to wisdom can come from a prolonged hospital stay that makes what used
to seem important feel peripheral. The comforts of life, including those
accumulated with great effort and expense, provide little solace when hooked up
to an intravenous drip. The face that stares back in the mirror during
chemotherapy – strangely familiar and yet puffed up, aged, and hairless – puts
vanity in its place.

In November 2007, I was doing work-related travel in Europe and South Asia
when I felt a lump in my chest. That lump – a tumor the size of a small
grapefruit – saved my life: I could no longer ignore multiple signs of serious
illness. The next month, I was diagnosed with a very advanced (stage IV) form
of Lymphoma. Tumors were everywhere, and I didn’t need to be reminded that
there is no fifth stage of a cancer,

I consider myself very fortunate. My life-threatening illness was reversible

through the combined efforts of my caregivers, family, friends, prayers, and –
not least of all – my will to recover. Spending four months in chemotherapy
gave me plenty of time to reconsider my life. Writing this little book helped me;
perhaps it can help you, too.

Wisdom is passed on by being relearned. Some of what I have learned is

encapsulated in the life lessons found in these pages. These lessons are certainly
not new. To the contrary, the “wisdom of the ages,” is by definition, anything
but new, which is why I have accompanied these lessons with quotations from
great philosophers and religious leaders from many faiths and traditions. I
subscribe to what the Talmudic scholar, Moses Maimonides, once said: “Accept
the truth from whatever source it comes.” I have also sprinkled these pages with
the wisdom of humorists because laughter is a powerful aid to recovery.

3
If you are in midst of chemo and facing a serious illness, perhaps you will find
some useful guidance in these pages. The “therapy” and life lessons offered here
might help clarify why the two Chinese characters that mean “crisis” can also be
translated to mean “opportunity.” Please feel free to make a copy of this book
and pass it along to friends and loved ones. I would welcome your thoughts and
comments. You can reach me at mkrepon@gmail.com.

Michael Krepon
North Garden, Virginia

Michael Krepon is the co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington-

based think tank that works to alleviate hard problems of international security.
He served as President and CEO of Stimson from 1989 to 2000, and he continues
to direct Stimson’s programming on proliferation, space security, and South
Asia. Krepon is also the Diplomat Scholar at the University of Virginia, where he
teaches in the Politics Department. He is the author or editor of thirteen books,
most recently Better Safe than Sorry: The Ironies of Living with the Bomb,
published by Stanford University Press, and he has published articles in Foreign
Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Security, Survival, The New York Times,
Washington Post, and many other publications. Krepon previously worked for
President Jimmy Carter, on Capitol Hill, and at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace. He appears regularly on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer,
CNN, NPR, the BBC, and on other media outlets in the United States and abroad.

4
Why me?

If this question is asked in search of pity or sympathy, it will not help you heal.
If, instead, this question helps to identify unhealthy practices, you can speed the
positive effects of your medical treatments. Your illness affects your person in
the most intimate ways, but at the same time, it is quite impersonal. Your illness
doesn’t care about you, or the next person it strikes. Take your recovery, not the
illness, personally.

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our

potential.
-- Winston Churchill

All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and
to, and why.
-- James Thurber

5
Health crises are opportunities.

You have gotten sick for more than one reason. You will have more success in
getting well if you focus on those reasons. Grievances foster illnesses, while
gratitude is medicinal. One crowds out the other. Which will you choose? Re-
circulated air can be stifling, and fresh air is medicinal. Which will you choose?
Serious illness can bring family and friends closer. Will you stop taking this
powerful medicine after recovery? Your work habits may be unhealthy. Will
you return to them?

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

-- Milton Berle

The nearer any disease approaches to a crisis, the nearer it is to a cure. Danger
and deliverance make their advances together; and it is only in the last push
that one or the other takes the lead.
-- Thomas Paine

6
Steer clear of self-doubt and the sympathy of others.

Dwelling in doubt is a poor substitute for hope in recovery. The sympathy of

others corrodes hope. Sympathy is just another manifestation of Ego: It is offered
by those who mean well, but it’s an emotion that serves the needs of the
sympathizer, not the person who seek wellness. Your illness is about you, not
the sympathizer. Ask clearly for support and prayer, not sympathy.

Sympathy is easy to get, and it is not binding. “You have my sympathy,”and

inside we say, “and now let us move on to something else.”
-- Albert Camus

7
Malignancy

The harshest word in the English language is malignancy. You have every right
to feel fear, anger, and depression after hearing this word, but these emotions
block pathways to recovery that medical treatments seek to open. They rob you
of the resources and commitment you will need for this campaign.

The darkness only stays at night time

In the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good at arriving at the right time
No it’s not always going to be this grey
-- George Harrison

8
Uncommon bravery is a common occurrence.

Bravery and anxiety often travel together, companions on battlefields, hospital

corridors, or anywhere else where comfort zones are left far behind. Heroism is
also manifestly present in those who are unable to enjoy the simplicity and
comfort of daily routines. Open your eyes: Heroism is everywhere, including
within you. It does not require an award to be recognized.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

-- Plato

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear.

-- Mark Twain

9
Insurance

Your best chance of recovery lies in being able to focus on a “to do” list with just
one agenda item – your healing. Health and disability insurance are essential to
recovery. The fortunate ones with a single-item to do list in the hospital are
dwindling.

Cares deny all rest to weary limbs.

-- Virgil

10
Joy and pain.

There’s no joy in chemotherapy. But anything that helps with recovery is your
friend, and not all of your friends are joyous. The lows in life can make the highs
seem even more elevated. Expansion and contraction are inescapable. Even
those who try to play it safe, always seeking to remain on an even keel, get hit
with serious illness. You are a wave rider in life, whether or not you own a
surfboard.

It is sheer folly to tear the hair in grief as if sorrow could be cured by baldness.
-- Cicero

11
To heal, jettison social convention.

The etiquette of lying on a hospital bed is different from being seated at a five
course meal. Doing what your body requires to regain health means pealing off
layers and going where the pain takes you. Different frequencies dwell deep
inside, from long-locked compartments of regret and sorrow, where malignancy
comes to call. Force of habit may prompt apologies for the upwelling of pain.
Not to worry: Sounds and smells don’t matter; getting better does. Emily Post is
not read in hospital rooms.

Misfortune comes from having a body.

Without a body, how could there be misfortune?
-- Lao Tzu

12
Bald heads

Bald heads roam the corridors, tethered to poles carrying chemo. You are
temporarily part of a new tribe, having exchanged the markings of “normalcy”
for those of vulnerability. Profiles in courage walk these corridors. Keep moving
forward, step by step.

The best way out is always through.

-- Robert Frost

If you are going through hell, keep going.

-- Winston Churchill

13
Thoughts and Prayers

Some send thoughts, others prayers. Some can express love; others dance
around a word that is too hard to speak. No matter. Recovery is about
connectivity. Powerful medicine comes in many different bottles.

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the
attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.
-- Victor Hugo

14
To heal, surrender without resignation.

You are not in charge here: Someone well above your pay grade is. You have
influence, but not control over the future. All of your careful planning can be
washed away in an instant. Dwell in the present, and the future will unfold –
and will make sense -- downstream. Surrendering to life’s surprises is the exact
opposite of being resigned to your fate. Resignation means giving up, and you
have an important battle for recovery to wage with quiet determination.
Surrender acknowledges your limitations, while prayer calls for powerful
sources to assist modern medicine. After recovery, surrender also opens
possibilities that your life can be filled with serendipity and wonder.

We know who we are, but know not what we may be.

-- William Shakespeare

15
The interloper.

When serious illness becomes a trespasser, it will not be run off the property very
easily. Recovery takes time, patience, good humor, and willpower. Many
success stories have three main components. While cancer is a clever,
opportunistic disease, western medicine can accomplish wonders, and dedicated
researchers are developing more effective therapies to counter its mutant strains.
The support of family, friends, and prayer circles is crucial. The wider the
concentric circles of protection around you, the more the trespasser has to deal
with. Protection also resides in your private belief and commitment to recovery.

It is slavery to live in the mind unless it has become part of the body.
-- Kahlil Gibran

The body never lies.

-- Martha Graham

16
Bread and meaningful work are the staff of life.

Work puts bread on the table, but a life of drudgery makes it hard to enjoy the
food. Meaningful work has infinite variety but one common purpose: to serve
others. The food on the table tastes better by being of service.

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.
-- Aristotle

17
Go back to work -- differently.

Having almost lost your body, the loss of a job can add insult to injury. Your old
job may still be available, but you have changed. You have traveled far off the
beaten track: there is nothing “normal” about experiencing serious illness and
recovery. Your powers of perception may be much stronger, including your
ability to see that parts of your old job description were unhealthy. What you
once took for granted may now feel exceptional. Job satisfaction grows when
you aim higher than for a mere return to normalcy.

The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.
-- Jean-Paul Sartre

18
Refocus your work on what you love to do, not what you
must do.

Working to pay the bills wears down your body and spirit. When you work at
what you love to do, you are rejuvenated -- and money either will become less
important or more plentiful. If money becomes less important, you will have
fewer bills to pay. Or money will become more plentiful because you will be
rewarded for doing what you do best. Either way, try to choose love over
money.

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
-- Confucius

19
Expand job satisfaction by narrowing your responsibilities.

Serious illness can prompt a change in your job description. The best careers are
growth experiences, and growth usually starts with chores. As you grow
further, you will discover what you are good at doing, and what you would
prefer that others do. As your capabilities become more evident, you can slough
off chores. Later on, you can choose to shed responsibilities that you can
perform well, but not enjoyably, to focus on what you excel at and which makes
your heart sing.

Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
-- Mark Twain

20
Change the world by changing yourself.

Machiavelli tutored his Prince that, “there is nothing more difficult to carry out,
nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, that to initiate a
new order of things.” Great expectations can lead to great disappointments.
Countless benefits await with humility, openness to change., and without
expectation. You can create a new order of things within yourself, absent the
risks that ambitious leaders invite.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

If we learn the art of yielding what must be yielded to the changing present,
we can save the best of the past.
-- Dean Acheson

21
Share your power, and your influence will grow.

Power accumulated on behalf of a cause only helps that cause when it is

distributed among its intended beneficiaries. Power that is accumulated but not
distributed breeds disenfranchisement and resentment. By seeking to control
others, your influence will shrink. If you wish to help others, empower them.

I thought that my invincible power would hold the world captive,

leaving me in a freedom undisturbed.
Thus night and day I worked at the chain with huge fires and cruel hard
strokes.
When at last the work was done and the links were complete and unbreakable,
I found that it held me in its grip.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

He who has great power should use it lightly.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

22
The greatest service you can perform for others are those
that serve you best.

The difference between selfishness and service is simple: Selfishness feeds the
Ego without nourishment, while service provides nourishment for you and
others. Your Ego depends on boundaries and hierarchies. Service breaks down
boundaries and hierarchies.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.

I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

23
Regrets and wishes don’t help. Dreams do.

We all stumble and sometimes fall. What matters most is how you pick yourself
back up. Learn and grow. Regrets will keep you stuck in the past. They are
reminders of opportunities lost. The longer you hold on to regrets, the harder it
is to move on. Wishes are like regrets – except they point forward instead of
backward. Wishes are substitutes for action. Wishes and regrets spin the
weathervane of your mind endlessly. Both are substitutes for living in the
present. Unlike wishes spun like cotton candy, dreams are substantial because
they can signal clear intent. If you are willing to follow your dreams, they can
become the blueprints to your future.

We see things and say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were and I say,
“Why not?”
-- George Bernard Shaw

24
It’s hard to grow or heal by selling yourself short.

You have either been sold a bill of goods, or you have been gifted with a blank
check. Newborns do not carry these papers through the birth canal. The greatest
gift that parents can offer children, besides life and love, is enabling them to
pursue limitless opportunity. This gift is hard to impart because most parents
have not experienced it themselves. It is far easier to pass along a sense of limits
and remorse. The good news is that there is a statute of limitation on parenting.
As you grow, there are endless opportunities to reject limits and reach for blank
checks.

You have a channel into the ocean, and yet

you ask for water from a little pool.
-- Rumi

25
To reach for the heights, don’t hold on.

Pain is part of living, but it does not lead naturally to gain. Nor does risk
naturally lead to reward. Instead, the pursuit of risk and pain often lead to more
of the same. Some reach highs through exertion, but struggle need not be a part
of this. Do you want to build muscle mass or feel happiness? True bliss doesn’t
come from exertion or crazed risk taking. A gentler kind of risk may be required.
You don’t need to be a mountain climber to reach the heights.

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous

delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.
-- e.e. cummings

26
Say more by speaking less.

Quiet is a precious commodity in hospital rooms and elsewhere. Very few

people on this Earth add value with every additional word. The rest of us say
less by speaking more. Truth be told, the less you say, the more others will
listen. By talking to fill in time, or to impress, you are more likely to lose your
audience. If you want others to hear what you say, practice saying less.

It does not require many words to speak the truth.

-- Chief Joseph

27
It’s hard to learn while talking. Try listening.

Meaningful conversations occur in and out of hospital rooms – if you are willing
to hear them. When you talk, you are not listening, and if you do not listen, you
are not learning. The more you hear, the wiser you become, and the wiser you
become, the more effectively you will communicate. Developing the capacity to
hear will make you a better speaker.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance

-- Confucius

28
Learn the art of asking good questions.

In illness as in health, the best questions are short and to the point. What do you
want to learn and need to know? The worst questions take the longest time to
ask, and invite evasion. Brevity clarifies the presence of a fine mind and invites
learning. Care givers, especially nurses, can help you formulate questions.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one
will do.
-- Thomas Jefferson

29
Why settle for the ordinary when you are so extraordinary?

You don’t need to be a world record holder to be extraordinary. Most moments

of bliss aren’t recorded, except in the mind’s eye. Remember what it was like,
long ago, to experience a sense of wonder looking at a spider’s web? You don’t
need to go out on a limb to experience the extraordinary, just get off the beaten
track. Find a quiet place to clear your mind of clutter. Or for a moment, suspend
judgment about the person next to you. The extraordinary can happen in the
very instant you reject routine and expectation. Access the extraordinary by
being open to it.

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.

-- Walt Whitman

30
Love isn’t a negotiation.

Love is the best companionship during serious illness. True love isn’t
conditional, and it’s not about splitting differences. Bargaining is about power.
Negotiation is about price. Are you in a negotiation or a loving relationship?
What do you want from relationship? Leverage, or love?

Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is
paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other.
-- Carl Jung

Love gives itself; it is not bought.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

31
Love isn’t a sporting event.

Love is the calling card of the spirit. It is the opposite of sport because it’s not
about the score, Ego, or competition. Love steers clear of spectators and is not
perfected with instant replays. Love is about trusting in another person. This
dance usually begins with physical attraction, the narrowest and most ephemeral
aspect of love. Love’s scope expands with an enduring commitment to
partnership, and expands again with the amazing gift of a newborn child -- the
divine manifestation of physical love. The aging process tests love with routine
and illness. A love that works though these challenges holds deeper rewards
than any sporting trophy.

lovers alone wear sunlight

-- e.e. cummings

32
To find true love, ditch the checklist.

Mental checklists of the “ideal” mate can be shaped by fixed ideas implanted by
parental guidance, popular culture and advertising. Checklists work better for
grocery shopping than for love. Try setting aside your checklist to hear your
own voice.

Don’t keep searching for the truth, just let go of your opinions.
-- The Buddha

When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.
-- Mark Twain

33
The strongest partnerships grow separately as well as
together.

Life is filled with choices between stagnation and growth. Relationships

multiply these possibilities times two. Sacrifice is part of love, but love doesn’t
ask for the kind of sacrifice that results in stagnation. The sums of love change
over the course of a relationship. At times they may add up quickly, and at other
times contract. It’s hard for a partnership to flourish when only one person is
growing, or when growth is demanded in lock-step. Strong partners grow
separately as well as together.

Marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship, and there can be no

friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
-- Samuel Johnson

34
Replace judgment with gentleness.

Judgment is a currency the Ego uses to avoid bankruptcy. Self worth isn’t a
currency; it’s an earned credit that comes from wise choices, not from bad-
mouthing others. The person you judge harshly is far more likely to hold fast
than to change course. Poor choices will eventually backfire without your help,
so be gentle with judgment. Say what you mean without being mean. If your
intention is to help others choose wisely, try gentle guidance and withholding
judgment.

All living beings are the owners of their actions, heir to their actions…
Whatever they do, for good or evil, to that will they fall heir.
-- The Buddha

35
Wisdom’s purpose is to clarify complexity.

Knowledge is the mastery of complexity. Wisdom is the understanding of

simple truths. It is possible to have knowledge without wisdom, since
complexity can obscure as well as illuminate. Why not choose illumination? The
wisest among us understand complexity while speaking simply.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

-- Albert Einstein

36
Find the light at the end of the tunnel inside yourself.

The light at the end of the tunnel promises extrication from poor choices. The
exit strategies of political leaders depend on those they cannot control. Finding
the light at the end of your personal tunnel is far easier because this exit depends
on you, and not others. You create light when you are kind to yourself and to
strangers. Enlightened actions always generate greater light.

The kingdom of heaven is within.

-- Jesus

Let there be Light.

-- Genesis

37
Past hurts will stick to you only if you wear Velcro.

Nobody escapes the game of dodge ball in life. You will accumulate wounds,
and some will hurt very deeply. The severity of these wounds depends mostly
on others. Your speed of recovery depends mostly on you. Those who have
wounded you willfully or unconsciously are like fisherman: You have taken their
bait and they have set the hook. Healing occurs when you choose to get off the
hook. In doing so, you will let your nemesis off the hook, as well. Even the
deepest wound can be healed quickly by forgiveness.

To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of vivid

knowledge.
-- Mahatma Gandhi

38
To complain is human; to shrug off complaints is divine.

Most complaints are trivial. Deep sources of discontent aren’t complaints; they
are inner callings for course corrections. Complaining about what you cannot
change, like inclement weather, drains your spirit. Weather is always natural
and never inappropriate to its causes. You don’t visit Ireland to keep dry; if you
want to bask in sunshine, go somewhere else. Complaining about what you can
change is another matter entirely. Do you expect sympathy for self-imposed
dilemmas? Is this your expectation of friendship? Complaints are the fencing
you erect around the possibility of changing course.

Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the
beauty of the good.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

39
Useful distractions.

Serious illness invites distractions. Distractions can balance or imbalance your

life. The most useful distractions improve your powers of discernment and
make connectivity more meaningful. Your long-term recovery can depend on
finding a balance between useful distraction and contemplation.

Go forth, under the open sky, and list

To Nature’s teachings, while from all round –
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air –
Comes a still voice.
-- William Cullen Bryant

What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.

-- Will Rogers

40
Choose your distractions wisely.

What distractions suit you? The travails and follies of others? Television
personalities whose radar scopes ping sources of aggravation and fear?
Entertainments that hold your attention by jarring it? Thumb dexterity has never
been greater, but this is not the reason why humans evolved from apes. Less
stimulation can be more: Try using your thumb to reach for the mute or the off
button. The revving inside can be quieted by a walk outside, or by staring at a
starry sky. Nature can be a perfect antidote to disquiet.

Sit here with your back to the mountain.

With the river birds and mountain flowers,
Share my leisure.
-- Wang An-Shih

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go
into the other room and read a book.”
-- Groucho Marx

41
Go the extra mile.

Finding beauty does not require any travel, let alone foreign travel. Sometimes,
however, going the extra mile can do wonders for the spirit, especially after a
serious illness. Magnificent landscapes can open your open your heart and make
your cells pop like champagne. You can remind yourself of beauty close at hand
by traveling further afield.

The poetry of earth is never dead.

-- John Keats

42
Excess is not success.

Excess thrives on wants, not needs. This age of excess, unlike earlier ones, is not
constrained by income. The wealthy can afford to live in MacMansions, and
those on limited incomes can gorge on Big Macs and Big Gulps. Fast food, like
large debt payments and golden parachutes, comes with a minimum of waiting.
Airwaves offer an excess of confident opinion with a minimum of reflection. The
“I’s” have it, under the guise of “we” versus “them.” The loss of balance means
that more are likely to trip and fall. The greater the imbalance, the more painful
falls can become. What is your definition of success? Does it include excess?

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.

-- Epicurus

Only those who know when enough is enough can ever have enough.
-- Lao Tzu

43
Higher powers.

Higher powers are looking out for your wellbeing, but their protection does not
cover repeated disregard for common sense – and your own health. When you
invite unwelcome consequences, why be surprised to find them at your
doorstep, or inside your body? When trekking in the desert, trust in God, but tie
down the camels at night.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest;

second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the
bitterest.
-- Confucius

44
Options.

Options invite roaming, not constancy. Our obese nation is on the move, by car,
by television remote, and by web surfing. The more you are free to roam, the
more important your internal compass becomes -- and mentors to help you read
it. When everything is optional, choice matters more than ever.

Now what shall I --

Stay home or roam?
“Roam”, Pleasure said;
And Joy – “stay home.”
-- W.H. Davies

45
Friendship

Family comes with the territory, but close friends are hand-picked. Aside from a
life partner, no choice you make can be more nurturing. You will know who
your closest friends are during a serious illness. Once a bond of deep friendship
is forged, it can grow cold from inattention, but it won’t break. When friends
drift apart, serious illness can become a strong magnet. There can be
awkwardness in reconnecting, but the rest is simple. The two purest measures of
friendship are ease of conversation and the heartbreak of loss.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

-- Kahlil Gibran

I have lost friends, some by death… others through sheer inability to cross the
street.
-- Virginia Woolf

46
Identity can be confusing.

Parents can be dependents, and providers can be needy persons. Confusion over
identity can grows over time. Those who are what they do face identity crises
when a threatening illness strikes. Your external identity is like a narrow balance
beam in gymnastics, made of the hardest wood. The more you depend on
externals, the more painful your fall can become if you lose your balance. A
healthy identity can withstand serious illness. Your internal balance beam is
wide and can cushion any fall.

Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.

Aesop

47
Counter exhaustion with awareness.

Exhaustion is like a thief, masking the onset of serious illness. Modest health
problems grow inside and illness gains ground when tiredness feels like a second
skin. Deep rest is a powerful medicine. What robs you of sleep?

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,

The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.
-- William Shakespeare

48
Focus on recovery. The end-state makes the journey
worthwhile.

Nothing you have accomplished is as important as your recovery. You have the
power to focus, so focus harder than ever before on getting well. Any long
journey becomes harder by counting the miles. Select your mileposts sparingly.
Stay positive. Sweet chapters in your life await you.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable
will.
-- Mahatma Gandhi

49
Aging is not just better than the alternative, it’s a gift.

Trade-ins are for used cars; your body perseveres. The most painful bruises you
carry through life are internal which, sooner or later, show up externally. The
good news about aging is that it’s not just about the loss of tire tread. There is no
body shop for the Soul. Become your own mechanic. Greater wisdom can come
from greater mileage, if you are willing to learn your life’s lessons. The more
you tune up on the inside, the less will external infirmities bother you.

I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine.
It takes place in an impalpable greyness, with nothing underfoot.
-- Joseph Conrad

I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep.
-- Robert Frost

50
REFERENCES, SUGGESTED READINGS AND WEBSITES

A Treasury of the World’s Best Loved Poems (New York: Avenel Books, 1961)

Coleman Barks, translator, with John Moore, The Essential Rumi (Edison, New
Jersey: Castle Books, 1997)

Shalu Bhalla, ed., Quotes of Gandhi (New Delhi: UBS Publishers, 1981)

Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Meditations (Valley Center, California: Metta Forest

Monastery, 2006)

Desmond Biddulph, 1001Pearls of Buddhist Wisdom (San Francisco: Chronicle

Books, 2007)

Big Wisdom [Little Book] (Nashville, Tennessee: W. Publishing Group, 1993)

David R. Brower, ed., with Marc Lappé and John Chang McCurdy, Of All Things
Most Yielding (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972)

Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English, translators, Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching (New York:
Vintage Books, 1972)

Lloyd Albert Johnson, A Toolbox for Humanity: More Than 9000 Years of Thought
(Victoria, British Columbia: Trafford Publishing, 2004)

Richard Alan Krieger, Civilization's Quotations: Life's Ideal (New York: Algora
Publishing, 2002)

Edward Connery Latham, ed., The Poetry of Robert Frost (New York: Henry Holt
and Company, 1969)

Caroline Myss, Anatomy of the Spirit (New York: Free Press, 1996)

Kent Nerburn and Louise Mengelkoch, eds., Native American Wisdom (Novato,
California: New World Library, 1991)

R. Kent Rasmussen, The Quotable Mark Twain (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998)

David M. Robinson, ed., The Spiritual Emerson, Essential Writings (Boston: Beacon
Press, 2003)

51
Selections from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (New York: Avenal Books, 1961)

George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch (New York:

Penguin, 1988)

Steven Stavropoulos, The Beginning of All Wisdom: Timeless Advice from the Ancient
Greeks (New York: Marlowe & Company, 2003)

Bryan Sterling, The Best of Will Rogers: A Collection of Rogers' Wit and Wisdom
(New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc., 2000)

Rabindranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore: An Anthology (New York: St. Martin’s

Press, 1997)

http://www.bartleby.com/quotations/

http://www.giga-usa.com/

52