The fall has been unusually mild with plenty of rain. Now we are having a cold snap. Farmers in the area have been planting peas and spinach in recent weeks. I have been doing some planting, a thousand little things preparing for the spring, and planning.
Book review
This week I am posting my first book review, Jill Sklar’s The Five Gifts of Illness: A Reconsideration. One response to a life-threatening illness is to say “Woe is me. Life is so unfair.” I prefer to believe that life is one long series of wakeup calls that initially take the form of small nudges that gradually get bigger if you don’t learn from them. I took no notice of my smaller wakeup calls that would have put me on a better lifestyle track and got my cancer as a result. As I came through my cancer relatively unscathed I now recognise that it was a gift – probably my final wakeup call. So I agree with Jill Sklar – my cancer was a gift. The only question is how seriously I decide to take my wakeup call and how radically I am willing to change my lifestyle.