Everything else could wait...or could it?

[Worm Reader]

I believe that cancer is not something that can be completely avoided; for her, the patients and her career were more important. Perhaps she spends a lot of time healing others rather than herself, but why should she regret it if that is truly her calling? I don't believe she won t have cancer if she set aside more time for herself.

[Gabrielle Sigaki]

I've always wondered how much time I have. What if my life ends the next minute? Will I regret it? The fact is I won't if I've lived a happy life. By happy, I don't mean the standards set by society but doing the things that would genuinely make me happy.
Not everyone has the same kind of priorities. For instance, I prioritise my family. Some people give more importance to their career. Likewise, the author found her happiness in caring for her patients. She clearly mentions it was her calling.
My take: prioritise whatever makes you happy. Everything else can wait... Of course!

I agree. We should prioritize what brings us happiness indeed, if we don't prioritize ourselves and our wishes or our dreams sometimes we wouldn't be ourselves I think. The author seems very happy taking care of people. Besides, even though she doesn't always prioritize her family and friends, she also doesn't neglect them, which I think is very important since some people mistake prioritizing something with only focusing on something.

[Gabrielle Sigaki]

The author doesn't seem to consider what she is doing as a job, as she loves being a caregiver. When someone loves what they do for a living as much as the author does, it is impossible to separate work from life. As she has an understanding family, she didn't have to worry about work-life balance. Nobody can foresee the future, so it would be unfair to say the author didn't put health her health first.

Your post reminds me of the quote that if you are doing a job you love you won't actually be working every day of your life. Some days are tougher than others, but it brings happiness if it is a job you love and the author indeed seems to love taking care of other people. Even though she had tougher days, she loves taking care of her patients.

[Gabrielle Sigaki]

The answer lies in the question: "What is it that gives you satisfaction when you go to bed at night?" Happiness will always be subjective for everyone. There is no right answer here; you have to feel satisfied and complete in whatever you choose to do.
The author found her peace while caring for her patients. She felt the happiness in the greater good of the community. But at the same time, it wouldn't have been selfish of her if she would've chosen her family over her career.

I completely agree with what you said about happiness being subjective. The author found her happiness in her work where she takes care of other people, but it doesn't mean that she also doesn't love her family. She made a decision of what to prioritize, and I also think that there's nothing wrong with it since we can't do everything we always want to do.

[Gabrielle Sigaki]

As a human we all have something that drives us. Some call it passion, people find their passion in their jobs, families, friends, talents etc. Life is too short doing something that doesn't drive you and yes everything else could wait, so far as it involves what you love doing.
So for me i think the sickness was inevitable, it isn't about her not taking care of herself. One way or the other if its not sickness it might be something else, you know why because life is short.

I also think that her illness might be inevitable because it's really inevitable to get sick sometimes, and sometimes there was nothing that could have changed it. I think, in this case, that if she focused more on her health than on her source of happiness, her illness could get worse because our mental state interferes with our physical health too.

[Gabrielle Sigaki]

Doing what makes you happy is very vital. Some people put all their efforts, mind, resources on things that at the end of the day, won't make them happy, rather it makes them feel sad. According to the author, taking care of her patients makes her happy. Therefore, everything else can wait, make sure you prioritize whatever that makes you happy.

Indeed, if her happiness is related to taking care of people, she should continue to prioritize it. She shows that it is something that she really loves, and if she loves it so much, it can't be wrong to prioritize it.

[Gabrielle Sigaki]

Every creature, including human beings on this earth, has some sort of a purpose. An obligation to fulfil for this universe. And medicine was her call. Not all of us are lucky to have such a "call". I think it was the purpose of her life. Healing people. And that made her happy. If she neglected her job, and if she was diagnosed early, still, there is this question, will she be happy?

I also thought about it, and I think that if she neglected her job she wouldn't be happy anymore because it would mean neglecting her own happiness. Besides, the author's job is to take care of people, it's a beautiful job and an amazing purpose as you said. So I think everything else could wait in this case.

[Gabrielle Sigaki]

Yes, you should always do what makes you happy or what you are extremely passionate about but that shouldn't be detrimental to one's well being. Work-life balance is vital.

Taking care of yourself should always be a top priority. I'm sorry to say that the author didn't put herself first. If you do not take care of yourself, how can you be in your best form to take care of others?

I see your point, but I also think that if the author stopped working or started to neglect her work, maybe she wouldn't be as happy anymore, because her job was something that made her happy, and I think that her mental state could start to deteriorate, which would also affect her physical illness. Maybe it was inevitable.

[Gabrielle Sigaki]

This is such a hard question. Yes, if she had taken time to care for herself, rested, and relaxed maybe she might have caught the symptoms sooner? I'm not sure if we can blame ourselves for something so unknown. She could have very well-developed cancer regardless.

Maybe the cancer was indeed inevitable. Even if she found it out earlier she might not be able to take care of it properly, or maybe she would start to treat cancer sooner, those are just hypotheses of what might have been. Nevertheless, I agree that this is something that we can't blame anyone. Besides, she was happy doing her job, I think there shouldn't be anything wrong with keeping her source of happiness in this case.

[Gabrielle Sigaki]

it's clear that the author spends more time with her patients than friends and family and literally cares about their well-being. However, I think the author didn't even give herself much time as she should have. The book sounds so interesting though.

This is a great book indeed! The author prioritized her work of taking care of her patients, but it was something that she loved and that made her happy, so I think we might say that she took care of herself in her own way, taking care of her happiness I could say even.

[Gabrielle Sigaki]

There are some illnesses that we can prevent and some we cannot. I guess cancer is sometimes preventable but if it is a familial cancer or a genetic mutation that occurs in you, nothing will be able to prevent it. There for onky thing one can do is do things that can make them happy. In her case, if it is caring for her patients I don't think she has anything to regret.

Indeed, there are some types of cancer that we can prevent and we don't know if that was the case, but I also think about the author's mental state in this case. She loved to take care of her patients, and if she didn't do her job, maybe she would lose her happiness.

[Jagiine]

I've always wondered how much time I have. What if my life ends the next minute? Will I regret it? The fact is I won't if I've lived a happy life. By happy, I don't mean the standards set by society but doing the things that would genuinely make me happy.
Not everyone has the same kind of priorities. For instance, I prioritise my family. Some people give more importance to their career. Likewise, the author found her happiness in caring for her patients. She clearly mentions it was her calling.
My take: prioritise whatever makes you happy. Everything else can wait... Of course!

This is definitely what I was thinking! Priorities are personal and should be treated as such. There are some things which we should attend to that are not number one on our lists (e.g. for me, taking a shower doesn't make me happy), but they can be balanced out with the real pleasures.

[Vishnu Priya B]

I've always wondered how much time I have. What if my life ends the next minute? Will I regret it? The fact is I won't if I've lived a happy life. By happy, I don't mean the standards set by society but doing the things that would genuinely make me happy.
Not everyone has the same kind of priorities. For instance, I prioritise my family. Some people give more importance to their career. Likewise, the author found her happiness in caring for her patients. She clearly mentions it was her calling.
My take: prioritise whatever makes you happy. Everything else can wait... Of course!

It is up to you to choose your own priorities. And if they make you happy your life will be complete. But as a social being we are inevitably bound to our families. So if one has made his career the priority and his family the second, it may cause the family to suffer. He may rise in his career, but will get distant from his close ones. What completeness will be there in such a life

Of course, your family will suffer. But that doesn't mean you won't be living a complete life. Think about great leaders and freedom fighters. They dreamt of freedom and equality for others. They fought for it. Which in turn made them feel complete. Do you think their families didn't suffer? Yet they did what they did, why? Because that was their calling.

So, yup! Everything else can wait. Wait but not be abandoned! There's a difference.

[Suzer6440 xyz]

Cancer has a mind of it's own. I don't think think anything would have changed no matter what she did because this illness dies not care how it invades the body. Whatever makes you happy in life is what you should do. Every person has their own set of priorities. And some things take more residence over other things!

[Kavita Shah]

Something's wait but some things don't wait. If work versus family situation arises many would choose based on their judgment. For the author it was giving care to the patients. If the cancer was earlier detected then sure, she would have been at her home being taken care of but maybe she felt like she hadn't done enough to help others. Things like work can wait and things like illness, time, season won't wait.