Well before I retired on my 50th birthday, I already knew that life was short…
It’s not like I needed a cancer diagnosis to teach me that lesson.
As so I chose the freedom, power, and gift of TIME over the freedom and power that more money might buy me should I continue paid employment (by the way, still unaware of the cancer curve ball that was already on its way).
At that time, I fully expected to live a relatively healthy three decades or more—plenty of time to pursue my dreams of having some fun and doing some good. I imagined having thousands of carefree days to enjoy and billions of unrushed heartbeats to share all the knowledge, wisdom, and wealth I was so fortunate to accumulate in my first half century.
That all changed with my Colon Cancer and Lynch Syndrome diagnoses in 2012.
Suddenly, my future went blank. All the hope and happiness of so much to look forward to was stripped away from me. All my long-term projects became short-term projects. All my “big” plans became “little” plans (at least I thought so at the time). And so Frank the great hope for the world was reduced to Frank the cancer patient–condemned to living surviving one day at a time–and sometimes just one heartbeat at a time.