I would like to tell you an incredible story about the magic of the universe – one that has me believing in destiny more than ever before.
30 years ago, at the ripe young age of 28, my brother-in-law Jeff got diagnosed with ‘incurable’ Kidney cancer. 4 months ago, at age 58, he passed away.
The man lived for 30 more years than he was supposed to.
In that time he and my sister had 2 kids – one of them they weren’t supposed to have– enjoyed immense health, and lived a pretty dream-y life that was never supposed to happen.
After the cancer came back in a wild fury and finished him in under a month I asked Dr. Scheinfeld – Jeff’s same doctor since day #1 – about the situation to which he told me:
“Jeff was a miracle on both ends. To this day no one has ever survived the cancer he got all that time ago – and in 40 years of treating cancer I’ve never seen it come back so fast. We don’t understand it”.
The most interesting thing about Jeff’s timing on both ends was the status of his 2 kids. Medically speaking, he was not supposed to be able to produce children. But he did. 2x.
And 30 years later both of these ‘kids’ (now young adults) have officially found their way, are secure, and very much on path to living their best lives.
The timing on both ends is stark. My sister and I have talked a LOT about it and she told me “it very much feels like Jeff had a contract to stay with me, to have these 2 humans, to set them up, and as soon as that task was complete God swooped back in and said ‘OK, good job man, time is up, onto the next chapter’ or something like that”.
It’s made me think a lot about my own purpose, destiny and my personal ‘struggles’ of living this human life. I now question myself when pushing so hard because maybe it’s pointless to do so?
Maybe I have a contract too, one that I can never really see or understand, and that my job is simply to surrender and trust that I am on path. That I am living the life that I’m supposed to live and that no matter how hard I try and push the outcomes will be what they are for me…..
Are the outcomes of my life predestined or do I have full autonomy to make my path as I want?
In Western culture we all want to believe SO BADLY that we have full control and autonomy, but I am beginning to think this isn’t the whole story. The way I currently hold it is like this:
YES we have a path and a way that was ‘given’ to us and there isn’t much that we can do to change the entire trajectory. For example, I’m a 52 year-old white male with greying hair who would love to be a pro basketball player but that isn’t in the cards.
AND – and – within this trajectory I have immense power to affect the quality and energetic of this particular life path. And herein lies the WORK, and my opportunity to be great lies within the gorgeous, fortunate and given container of this life as I have it now.
What do YOU think? Would love to hear in the comments…..
Todd Jason
