“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice.” — T.S. Eliot

One of the biggest roadblocks I see in communication about cancer is the notion that it stops the future. This, of course, is complete nonsense, and yet the sense prevails for many with a diagnosis and for many who receive the news about their friends and loved ones. I hear stories about how a cancer diagnosis has caused patients to essentially give up on their lives and dreams, and I see the responses in people whose first reaction upon being told of someone else’s diagnosis is a palpable sense of loss. Yet the future keeps on drawing us all forward, inextricably, into new days and experiences and our collective evolving lives.

This is a beautiful thing.

Knowing and understanding that we are all mortal should motivate us to make the best of each day, to appreciate the experiences we have as individuals and share collectively with the world. So why is it that a reminder of one’s mortality has the effect of putting the emotional brakes on this experience for some people? We all die at some point, some sooner than others and often from completely unexpected reasons. Illness, disease and general poor health certainly play a part in mortality rates, but so do car crashes, natural disasters, random accidents and freak “acts of God.” In other words, our own mortality is largely out of our own control in the first place.

The sooner we realize that and get over it, the better. Everyone has the dark cloud of gloom potentially hovering over them, ready to shower on their final day and wash their presence from this fragile Earth. But every dark cloud has a silver lining, and it is this: as long as the cloud hovers, we are still here to contribute, to live, to thrive and love and be a part off something unique and fantastic.

A reminder of mortality may well be a blessing, a wake up call for those of us who were sleeping in a haze of complacency. But whatever service it offers, it should not halt the march of time. Every day counts, because we are sentient parts of a greater whole. Our experiences matter, not just to ourselves, but to one another, and they potentially resonate through time whether we intend them to or not.

But just on the personal level, at the very core, moving forward, knowing that you are in the moment with the power of inertia, is a good thing. The past is constantly evolving, growing behind you and pushing you forward whether you want it to or not. Embrace the movement and be a part of it. Propel.