The year 2021 was all about needles, vials, covid scare, the nurse’s smiles, doctor’s assurances and whole lot of lessons. Woody Allen famously wrote “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” And thats exactly what happened in December 2020 when I recovered from Covid. Cancer struck again real hard.
Through tears (and a lot of them this time around), courage, support and perseverance I went into the battle field yet again only to come out wiser with better dreams and understanding of life. I say “better dreams” because this time they meant more real.
Here are the three things that cancer taught me/ made me do:
1. INTENT
Our lives are a sum of our childhood environment, the things we see, imbibement from our parents, television, religion but rarely our own. We go about doing things because our mothers did it or it was taught by our teacher or more often than not because society demands it.
This time around, the second phase of my life(as I call it), I want to do things, start friendships, take on projects after checking my intent. Because I want the things I do to make me happy and content and not leave me tired and frustrated. I want to make the rest of my life intentional, not doing things just for the heck of doing them but doing them with pure joy and a clean heart without false imagery and false intentions.
2. SLOW DOWN
Cancer asked me to just “slow down”. Slow down to have a god cup of coffee, slow down to listen to my son, slow down to write a blog, just pause and enjoy the moment and slow the fuck down.
I realised a slow life is not about becoming asocial and not having goals. It is all about being present and involved in the task at hand, savouring the flavour of the food completely or being totally present while playing mono deal with kids and not checking phone every 3 minutes while talking to a friend. Slow down to live each moment – breathe in completely rather waiting to jump to the next and next and the next and not living at all.
Slowing down for me has taken a new meaning. For me it means just BEING PRESENT and not wanting to be anything else or anywhere else. Coming to a realisation that life is happening at every moment, it isn’t something that will happen once we achieve our goals. Savour the masala chai on sip at a time, meet old friends, cherish the memories, enjoy the sound of rain, keep creating a life while appreciating this one.
3. SÜKOON
Sukoon is a dream. A dream of tranquility. Tranquility for everyone.
The silver lining to my dark cancer cloud. During chemo and after surgery, the pain I felt was so immense that I was continuously looking for things (products) to calm my senses down. The constant smell of medicines around, metallic taste in the mouth and the skin always felt too much to bear post surgery. I carried candles to my chemo, always had mint tea or churan to change the taste of my mouth, I tried so many natural products to give my skin the lost shine.
I started sükoon with products that touched the five senses. Each product is in line with what bought me peace and thus I wanted to share this sukoon with as many people as possible. Sükoon is a dream conceived in cancer that I want to nurture into something that when people come in contact with, feel tranquility.
Cancer is a chapter in my life’s story with the maximum lessons. I learned them with all the power in me and I hope I am able to live them throughout my life and not forget it like maths algorithms.
Love~ NG
