Warriors are not always the fastest or strongest people. Warriors are those who stand between their enemy and all that they love and hold sacred.
We are all warriors against cancer.
Cancer. Cancer. Cancer. Cancer. Cancer… scary word. No matter how many times you say it, you can’t befriend it. Cancer is that mysterious subject that we hardly know anything about. Except vague associations like chemotherapy, baldness and death… and some cases of survival. It has such a bad image given that it is passionately followed by Lord Yama, so dissociation is a natural course of action. Unless one is forced into circumstances that don’t give them a choice, why would one leisurely learn about this omen of death?
I didn’t know anything about cancer until it was slapped into me one fine day during my sense of self discovery. Cancer was this ugly slug residing at the bottom of an ocean bed that one could look at from above, protected by a body of water; we’ve all watched it randomly jump out and take someone for itself, but for me it lived in the abyss. I was far removed from this ugly slug with my belief that it would only take other people; never me or my family. That’s when the universe decided to humble me by flinging me into that abyss and even after a year and a half of choking and throttling, I am aggressively trying to swim upwards to pierce through the water for a gulp of fresh air… and I know I will get there eventually.
However, during this journey towards the surface of water, I learnt to live with my cancer too. And that learning is the inspiration for this blog. The truth is that my cancer hasn’t been all bad. It’s been an odyssey of finding love, forgiving, healing, discovering myself, losing the people I don’t need, finding God and so much more. All these beautiful things came into my life only because of cancer. Cancer made me strong. It taught me about accepting the changes that come in life and learn to live with them happily. It made me realize that happiness is my choice and taking back control of life is my decision. Cancer is only a state of mind. I am confident that each cancer warrior has been faced with this choice and will have beautiful narratives to share on their decision on how to live with their slug.
See, a warrior can choose to live like a victim, be a patient on his bed and nobody would force him to do anything otherwise. That’s because his support group doesn’t know what he is feeling and will therefore let them be. A warrior has everybody’s unadulterated sympathy; hence he has to become his own motivator. Whether it is getting out of bed, talking, smiling, maintaining a routine or trying to not be envious of non cancerous humans. Every step is their war cry because a warrior holds his quality of life sacred and will fight for it. Cancer wins the day it beats a warrior mentally and he surrenders, but till he continue to treat it like a common cold and live life the way he wants, he is winning. The disease is scary, but our attitude towards it doesn’t have to be. Cancer can coexist with our normal life. It isn’t the end of the world and a warrior won’t let the thought of it tie a noose around his neck.
This brings me to my rationale behind this blog. You. You know somebody who has fought cancer; you may at some point be a support group to a diagnosed warrior. And you may not be prepared for it. Because nothing can prepare you for the intensity of emotions; neither yours nor theirs. Survival will happen. But the word cancer is so scary that we forget to focus on the happy moments and normal life that we live while with it. Your perception and reaction on cancer creates a domino effect to the supportive ecosystem. Don’t feed your fears to a warrior, don’t sympathise. Help them celebrate their life just the way you are celebrating your own. After all, it is the life in one’s years that count, not just the years in one’s life.
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