“Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?”

 - Mary Oliver, from The Summer Day

 

Our group contained twenty cancer survivors and care givers, from those in their twenties to those in their seventies, from all across the United States, and even someone from the United Kingdom. We had different professions, passions, and perspectives on life. With all of our differences, however, we had two very important things in common. First, all of our lives had been touched by cancer in some way. Second, we all agreed to take this wild and crazy journey to Nepal and Tibet. 

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We experienced the full spectrum of life each day together - regardless if it started in the Kathmandu Valley, the trails of the Himalayan Mountains, or on the Tibetan Plateau. We all had the same daily goals while trekking: to get to know one another, to soak in every moment of life and beauty around us, and to get to camp before we ran out of food and toilet paper. 

 

For us twenty, cancer had permanently changed our lives. It was easy to see how it did so negatively. We all had lost loved ones, many of us had our own journey with cancer, and some of us were still fighting. But we also chose not to let this negativity win. We were all on this journey not in spite of cancer, but because of it. All of us were using this opportunity to change our lives for the better. To that end, cancer was a gift.

 

“We are meant to live in joy. This does not mean that life will be easy or painless. It means that we can turn our faces to the wind and accept that this is a storm we must pass through. We cannot succeed by denying what exists. The acceptance of reality is the only place from which change can begin.” - Archbishop Desmond Tutu