Hi Phillip. Never thought about your question. As we travel through life, there are obstacles we have to overcome. How we handle those obstacles depends on our strength and faith I keep telling myself I am better off than lots of other folks. My question to myself is ~ "knowing what I know now, would I do things differently?"

I don’t get jealous, I think of how lucky I am. There are a lot of people out there worse than me and some with terminal or untreatable illnesses. I say be positive and enjoy life as tomorrow is a present. Life is too short to be worried.

What a question! It definitely caught my attention, more like a slap than a handshake, making me wince. I have been through a mastectomy, chemotherapy, years of undiagnosed sleep apnea and Sjogren’s Syndrome, and now several years of CLL. I’m not jealous of other people in a straightforward way. But I do wonder why this is my journey through life. There are other hard things that have shaped my life in negative ways, that made my life harder than other lives appear to be.
But it’s a mirage to think someone else’s life, only seen from the outside, is without some form of pain. Maybe their pain is grief that never gets better, debilitating depression, estrangement from parents, siblings or children. There are so many invisible burdens that people carry - people in this community as well as people who are not.

Invariably, when I become close to another person I discover that person has burdens, some that I couldn’t carry.

I told a pastor friend of mine that I guessed God was using this to refine me. He replied that maybe God had given it to me because He trusts me with it. (The answer is waiting in Heaven.)

Fear not, be of good courage, God sees you and knows your struggles. Isaiah 53:4 “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

I dont get jealous as living one’s life to the fullest, and embracing each new day Im grateful for. I try to keep my focus on living as normal as possible and remain the me before the diagnosis. I dont want to stop embracing every day as everyone has something. They may not have cancer, but they have something at some point. I enjoy hearing their stories and it keeps me from thinking about cancer.

When I see people who appear healthy I am not jealous. Everyone has issues. Some show, many don’t. I’m very grateful for who I am and what I have.