The truth is your feelings are your chemistry and your beliefs are your biology. I was impressed early on by the benefits of accepting one's mortality. When people learned they had cancer and started living, the benefits were enormous. Many thanked cancer for changing their lives. I don't recommend waiting for a diagnosis of a serious illness to start living. Think about what you would do if you had fifteen minutes to live. Then do it for the rest of your life. I call it finding your chocolate ice cream because one of our children once said, "If I had fifteen minutes to live I'd buy a quart of chocolate ice cream and eat it." For some it means moving to the mountains and for others buying a house at the seashore, taking off their tie, closing the office and picking up a violin, making the world beautiful or spending time with the kids. None of these survivors went home to just avoid dying. They went home to live until they died, loving life so much that every cell in their body responded to their desire to live. They didn't just cope and they didn't let go. They lived life fully and exceeded everyone's expectations. The classic end to a letter I received said, "I felt awful and I thought the doctor was right. I was going to die in two months. So I went home and did all the things I loved to do before I died." The letter ends, "I didn't die and now I am so busy, I'm killing myself. Help! Where do I go from here?" I told her to take a nap. Burning up is not the problem, burning out is.

Remember, we all die eventually and living is not about avoiding that great teacher called death. It is about creating your authentic life, not one lived just for others, but your unique way of contributing love to the world. Life is a labor pain and I want you to decide what you are willing to go through in order to give birth to yourself. . . .