THE EXPERIENCE OF LIVING WITH CANCER

TOUCHSTONE THURSDAYS

by Veteran Cancer Fighter Janice Thorup

Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live and as if you knew you must die tomorrow.

Shakers, famous for their woodworking and simple lifestyle, took this bit of philosophy and made of their lives works of simple beauty.

The experience of living with cancer has provided me with a similar focus. What work I do must be done for the sake of the work itself. I may not live to see its outcomes. I plant a small garden knowing that I may not live to see the harvest and the act thereby takes on a greater significance—it becomes an act of worship, a gift to the earth, to those who will come after me. And the gift is returned to me in the pleasure I take in actions that are disassociated from their results. I bask in the action itself, in the moment at hand, without wandering into that unclear domain of the future.

In 1995 Janice was diagnosed with Chronic Mylegenous Leukemia and given less than a year to live. Proving cancer wrong on a daily basis, Janice is happily married, a proud mother and grandmother enjoying the good life in Colorado.

Click Here to Read Janice Thorup’s Short Story The Blast Cells

www.thewhyfoundation.org