Happy Brain Storming

Have you been living your life to its maximum potential

. . . . . .

Riiiing Riiiing Riiiing *click*

"Hello?" "Mr. ---------??

Hi, I am doctor ------------ from the ------------ University Hospital and it is absolutely necessary to talk to you."

Now you are worried.

"Is it about those blood exams? I have a high cholesterol, haven't I? I knew it. God damn it. Is it *that* bad??"

After a short pause the voice at the other end of the line finally responds :

"Sort of..................Please come over here to talk about it".

In less than a minute you are in your car and on your way to the hospital. You pass through twenty doors and one nurse and land in a chair in front of some doctor. He looks at you and you look at him: However, when your eyes cross, you realise that something sinister is on the air.

"Mr. ------- I don't know any other way to tell you. You have leukemia........... You have 50% chances to survive it and we have to start therapy as soon as possible." The room around you turns and twists. Even the walls seem they want to devour you: Welcome to hell.

Every year, 1,399,700 new cases of cancer appear, according to the American Cancer Institute. From that grim number, only a 65% of them will survive it. What kind of force drives these people? What kind of fighting mentality flourishes in those minds, when they know, they have to deal with a terminal disease and they still live to prove the doctors wrong. How do you bend your logic, when a doctor tells you that your days are counted? And cancer is not the *only* terminal disease. There is no point to start naming all the other ones as you already know most of them. Some, even, have no therapy. People carry them, live with them and die from them.

Stephen was only 21 years old, when the doctors told him that he would live *only* for three more years . He was a physicist and at the time he lived at Cambridge, England. He had a rare syndrome that paralyzes the muscles and makes you die from breathing difficulties. The disease is known as the dark Lou Gehrig's Disease. But the doctors had miscalculated something very important: Stephen was one of the most stubborn and persistent persons you can find in the UK. When he wanted something, he would move the earth and he would stirr the oceans to get it. He decided, he had to marry as soon as possible and have children right away. He gradually lost the use of his arms, legs, and voice, and he would soon become almost completely paralyzed. At some point he could no longer use a pen to write and solve the equations needed to continue his work. And those were equations so complicated that, even in paper, it was almost impossible to solve them or even explain them to others. But not for stubborn Stephen. In one bold move, he surprised everyone and started solving them using nothing but his imagination. Being paralyzed, it is impossible for him to speak or walk, so he now uses a computer to control his robotic wheelchair and to produce a synthesized voice in order to communicate with the rest of the world. The machine does that by following the movement of his eyes and by sensing the tiny movements of his muscles. 44 years later, he is possibly one of the best theoretic physicists in the world. He specializes in cosmology and quantum gravity. He had over 12 international medals including the Prince of Asturias Award and the Copley Medal. He had 3 children and two marriages. When his first wife was asked what she was thinking by marring someone with life expectancy of two years she said: "Those were the days of atomic gloom and doom, so we all had a rather short life expectancy.". In 2007 he became the first quadriplegic to float free in zero-gravity. He is known under the name of Stephen William Hawking.

Lance was an exceptional cyclist and considered by many as a promising star. Then in 1996 disaster struck: He was diagnosed with stage three nonseminomatous testicular cancer. Since that was a late diagnosis, the cancer had grown, spreading to his lungs, abdomen and brain. The doctors gave him 50% chances of survival. Later, they said, it was less than 3% but they give him a false figure to give him hope. He decided to go for the most dangerous type of chemotherapy hoping that, if he would make it, he could resume his career. He lived 3 years in hell, going from therapy to therapy, fighting every day for survival, and losing one of his testicles but finally in 1999 he made it: His diagnosis said he was free of cancer. In one of the most amazing moments in sports history, he starts training again and with the mentality of a warrior he surprises the world. Only one year after the end of his treatment, Lance Armstrong becomes the absolute winner of the most physically exhausting sport in the world: the 2,290-mile Tour De France. Then many people said it was pure luck but next year the warrior proves them wrong. He went on, writing history, by wining cycling's most prestigious competition for six more times in the row. He becomes thus, the only person that has ever won the Tour De France for seven consecutive times.

Jeffery was a good wrestler when back in 1982 he was diagnosed as having Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system. He spent 2 years, living every day knowing that it maybe his last. But in a demonstration of courage, he survived it. He pushed through and started training again. Then in 1984 and with an impressive move , he pined 275-pound Thomas Johansson down on the mat and gave, to all the friends he made during therapies, something to really smile about: He became the second U. S. Greco-Roman wrestler in history to win an Olympic golden medal.

The list of people that made it is long:

* Paul M. Banks / Barbara Barrie / Eli Bebout

* Stan Hagen / Julie Harris / Sandy Hawley

* Mark Sale / Ebbe Sand / Simon Shakeshaf

* Tom Green / David M. Bailey / Mario Lemieux

* Arnold Palmer / Sandra Day O'Connor / Ruth Bader Ginsburg

* Olivia Newton-John / Melissa Etheridge / Sheryl Crow

* Peggy Fleming / Tucker L. Melancon / Barbara Delinsky ..... .

As you go through that long list of stories, describing people that survived from some form of a terminal disease, patterns start to emerge. As a series of clicks that when you hear them faster and faster start resembling a sound , in a similar manner the stories of these people show to all of us a better of way of living. This is a melody that sometimes is dark and sometimes is happy but always, ALWAYS makes you smile and vote a thumbs up. The Way of the Warrior What is there that all these people had in common in their way of thinking? Here are some quotes of those impressive survivors:

** Whatever you believe will happen to you... Probably will. If you believe you will die - you probably will. If you believe - I mean really believe - you will live. You have a good chance of living. This is not pie-in-the-sky believing. It's the hard-nosed belief that you have taken every step you can take and are ready to take others if necessary. .

** One of the greatest things I learned from being ill is that cancer is not a death sentence. It is possible to enjoy and celebrate your life, even when you are compromised by illness, and it is possible to defeat illness. Most important, being ill taught me how precious living is. It's the greatest miracle of all and it is ours to savor each and every day. .

** Every day is a fantastic gift. A day I didn't think I would get. I can get goose-bumps at a sunrise! Seeing my family grow - and seeing grandchildren... I remember the days I never thought I'd see these things. It colors everything about me. I'm ahuggy sorta guy by nature. But getting and giving hugs is a gift of immeasurable worth to me now. .

** No one ever promised me tomorrow... I guess I always knew that - but it didn't mean anything like it meant when you have cancer. All we have is today. If I really believe I have only today, how would I live it? .

** We all struggle with insecurities in one form or another. For me it took something extremely devastating - something that would take me to the deepest depths of self evaluation - to realize that battle scars are what makes someone interesting; battle scars are what makes someone wise; battle scars are what makes you realize how precious and valuable life really is; battle scars are what prepare you for the inevitable adversity that lies ahead. .

** Living means living every day to the absolute fullest. There isn't a day where I don't go for a long walk, or I'm out running or biking.

We live our everyday lifes being closed in false dilemmas and situations that we like to call problems. However, when you process them through the filter of your last day on earth they become unimportant. How would YOU spend your last day on this planet? Who would YOU call and what would you do different if you knew that you had only one day left?There are things you would dare to do. There would be people you would meet to tell them you love them. You would Vote for life. . As Carlos Castaneda said in his shocking book: This, whatever you’re doing now, may be your last act on earth. It may very well be your last battle. You have no time, my friend, no time. None of us have time. Change comes suddenly and unexpectedly, and so does death. There are some people who are very careful about the nature of their acts. Their happiness is to act with the full knowledge that they don’t have time; therefore, their acts have a peculiar power. Acts have power. Especially when the person acting knows that those acts are his last battle. There is a strange consuming happiness in acting with the full knowledge that whatever one is doing may very well be one’s last act on earth. I recommend that you reconsider your life and bring your acts into that light. You don’t have time, my friend. That is the misfortune of human beings. None of us have sufficient time. Your acts cannot possibly have the flair, the power, the compelling force of the acts performed by a man who knows that he is fighting his last battle on earth. It is the effort that counts. It is the fight that makes the difference. The everyday fight that transforms, what most people judge as impossible, to something that we can all smile about and Give a thumbs Up.

This reminds me the words of a writer:

"All of my life I've been trying to transform matter to spirit. By doing so, I can guarantee that when Death will finally pay me a visit, he will find nothing AT ALL to take with him."

And there is one last thing....