Day Two of treatment ticked off. Went like clockwork. 8 to go. Scans are all scheduled now too - Bone Scan, MRI to Head and full body CT Scan all within the next week. I am really getting the works.
Another milestone day - two weeks since I was given the horrible news. It seems like a lifetime has passed since that day already, but as I said before the time can go just as slow as it likes as far as I am concerned.
Time. How many of us really appreciate the value of time? I know in my younger days the focus was very much on money, not time. In the early 90's when I was working in London in the high-pressured corporate finance banking sector, your worth was perceived mainly by what you had, drove, wore and where you were seen to eat! My boss at the time was a super cool networker and knew everyone who was worth knowing. Needless to say it was never a dull moment and with a very swish office suite we regularly had visitors ranging from Saudi Princes, sports celebrities and of course droves of important businessmen. It was a great experience working for him with a salary to match, so I also became one of the elite. But it was also long hours of working with not much time to enjoy the salary I was paid. So, when he left in 1995 on a transfer to Singapore, I decided to throw in the towel and have some time off. His leaving gift to me was an airline ticket to anywhere in the world and I took a trip to Bali, via Bangkok and Singapore.
Of course I lost touch with the buzz of the London lifestyle eventually but imagine my surprise one day a few years ago when I saw his face on TV with written underneath "Shaukat Aziz - Prime Minister of Pakistan". Well you could have knocked me over. Apparently he left Citibank in 1997 at the request of President Musharraf to become Finance Minister and went on to become PM. Actually I always thought he would be Chairman of Citibank one day but I guess Prime Minister wasn't a bad career move!
So, history apart, I think I did come to realise even way back then that time is the most important commodity and you have to do the best that you can to balance the money you need with the way you wish to spend your time.
Having said that, I believe it is not until you are hit with something like serious illness that you look at everything properly. When I went through the first round of treatment five years ago we made a decision that we would make the most of our time from thereon. Well, we did do that for a while but slowly as normality returned our lives slipped back into the old routines and work took over in order that we could afford to do the things that we wanted to do.
Don't get me wrong, money is definitely important and can make life easier, but there are some things it cannot buy you - time, health or happiness.
This time around, well what can I say about this time? I have no regrets at all about what we have done in the past but I do know that every single itty bitty moment from here on is precious to me.
Photo: April 2006 - My three fellas on the beach in Antigua
NOTE: © All rights reserved. Any unauthorised copying or reproduction of this blog will constitute an infringement of copyright.
No comments:
Post a Comment