2/11/2014

Did a Plane Crash in Your Backyard?

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Written By Robert Hawke

We as human beings can pretty much get used to anything. It’s quite remarkable really. The day a plane crashes in your backyard, you might be pretty freaked out about it. But in a week or so, it might feel like a normal part of life to have the Transportation Safety Board sifting through the wreckage while you sip a cappuccino on your porch. A friend might walk by and say “Oh my gosh! Look at the plane crash in your yard!” You might reply “Oh ya, that. But have you seen my new cappuccino maker?”

Image of plane in a backyard

Many times this is what happens with a cancer diagnosis. Initially it can feel completely earth shattering, but in time we adjust and – to some degree – we get on with daily life.

We might find that as the initial shock wears off, we start to accept our circumstances. This might seem odd to the people around us, but many times we find a way to put one foot in front of the other. The trivial and mundane can actually be a real advantage at this point. It can really give us a boost to start caring about things that used to seem routine. Walking the dog can be a marvelous distraction from a life-threatening disease. Having to go buy Cheese Ranch Doritos to get ready to watch a marathon of “Orange is the New Black” episodes can really help you get your mind off the all-consuming worry of a new diagnosis, if only for a moment. It did for me. Did I ignore the cancer diagnosis? Of course, not. But, I didn’t ignore living life either.

It’s the small things, the routine things, we do every day that show us, moment by moment, hour by hour, we can deal with the plane crash in our backyard.

Care for a Dorito?