When Life Becomes Your Greatest Teacher: Lessons from Cancer's Classroom

There's something profoundly humbling about reading stories of people who've faced their mortality and emerged with wisdom that cuts straight to the heart of what it means to be human. I recently read the story of Jonathan Gluck's (More) journey with multiple myeloma. It reasonated deeply with me growing up watching my mom face her more than two decade battle with metastatic breast cancer and it reenforced a strong perspective that sometimes our greatest teachers come wrapped in our most difficult experiences.

Cancer doesn't discriminate. Cancer arrives uninvited, disrupting carefully laid plans and forcing us to confront questions we'd rather avoid. Yet within these stories of challenge and struggle, something beautiful can emerge, a clarity about life that is often obscured by the noise of our daily routines. When time becomes precious, when each day carries weight, we can begin to see what truly matters.

The Gift of Present-Moment Awareness

Jonathan's transformation from someone who "mostly ignored" his pain to becoming a "devout pre-crastinator" speaks to something many of us recognize but struggle to embrace: the preciousness of now. His question, "If you don't enjoy your life, what's the point of living?" isn't about hedonistic pleasure-seeking, it is about the act of paying attention to the meaning in ordinary moments of our daily lives before they slip away.

This perspective isn't unique to cancer patients. It is a gift available to all of us, though it often takes a crisis to unwrap it. The mother battling metastatic breast cancer who lived "with appreciation of the present and hope for the future" demonstrates this same profound understanding that life's temporary nature isn't a curse but an invitation to love more deeply, care more intentionally, and show up more fully.

Discovering Our Hidden Strength

"You can handle more than you think." These words from Jonathan carry the weight of lived experience. These words were the seldom spoken but always present foundation of how my mom lived!

Radiation therapy, chemotherapy, perpetual nausea, exhaustion, bone pain, sleepless nights, all challenges that once seemed insurmountable, somehow become navigable. This is about recognizing the remarkable capacity for resilience that exists within each of us.

My mom's perseverance through "more surgeries than I can count" without ever giving up on herself or her family illustrates this same truth.

Courage isn't the absence of fear or pain; it is moving forward despite them. It is choosing to love, to care, to remain present even when every instinct screams to retreat.

The Healing Power of Human Connection

Both stories illuminate something beautiful about human nature: our capacity for goodness, especially in the face of suffering. Jonathan's gratitude for doctors who saw him on Saturdays and nurses who held his hands speaks to the profound impact of simple acts of compassion. The friend who said, "You are my oldest friend" were words that finally allowed tears to flow.

Jonathan said he understood something vital about the healing power of acknowledgment and connection.

My mom’s "incredible kindness" and "unbounded love" created ripples that continue long after her physical presence ended. Her fingerprint, literally embedded in the World Change Coalition’s business logo, represents how love transcends mortality, how the impact of one caring person can touch countless lives they'll never meet.

Redefining Success and Purpose

These experiences of facing mortality reshape what we consider important. Profits become secondary to legacy. Individual achievement pales beside the opportunity to ease another's suffering. The World Change Coalition's commitment to supporting cancer patients through wig donations isn't just charitable giving, it is love in action, empathy translated into tangible help.

This shift from self-focused goals to other-centered purpose isn't about abandoning personal dreams. It is about expanding our definition of success to include the question: "How has my life made things better for others?"

Embracing Life's Uncertainty

Perhaps the most profound lesson embedded in these stories is about acceptance.

Jonathan's insight that "controlling what you can control and accepting things you cannot control, may not be the secret to human happiness, but it is probably as close as we're going to get" offers a framework for navigating life's inevitable uncertainties.

This isn't passive resignation, it is active wisdom. It is choosing to fish whether the fish are biting or not, to play the cards you're dealt with grace, to remain open to joy even when sorrow feels overwhelming.

Small Beginnings, Great Impact

Sic parvis magna, great things from small beginnings. Every act of kindness, every moment of presence, every choice to love despite loss contributes to something larger than us. The fingerprint on a pair of jeans becomes a symbol of enduring love. A simple expression of sympathy becomes a lifeline. A decision to live fully despite uncertainty becomes an inspiration to others facing their own challenges.

These stories remind us that we don't need to wait for a diagnosis to begin living with intention. We can choose today to practice "pre-crastination" with the things that matter. We can offer the simple gift of presence to those who are suffering. We can recognize that our temporary time here is not a limitation but an opportunity to love deeply, to serve generously, and to leave the world a little kinder than we found it.

In the end, perhaps that's the greatest lesson cancer teaches is how to truly live.

Thank you, Jonathan, for sharing your heartfelt story and your deeply insightful and compelling observations.

Thank you, mom, for being who you were and showing your family and friends your inspirational strength and courage. 

Thanks to all of you that follow our blogs and have supported the World Change Coalition.  Please share the site and the blogs with your friends and family. 

I love you mom and miss you.