"I am startled to think how happy I am most of the time, considering that my health is a mess. I use a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis and have struggled with five different cancers. I’m completely blind in one eye, can't see at night, and can drive only short distances in daylight, at speeds that enrage other drivers. My blood pressure is high, my thyroid function low. My bones are crumbling, and I’m shorter than I was two years ago.
Yet I am happy. My wheelchair gets me most places I want to go. Large type on my computer allows me to write. I don't have to put on pantyhose and go to an office everyday. If it snows, I watch the trees turn white instead of worrying about a nerve-racking ride home from the city. Chatting by the office coffeepot has been replaced by e-mail with friends. I have all the things that I promised myself I would have retired someday: books by the stack, a view of the lake, a golden retriever. Cancer has taught me that "someday" is today. And today I am doing exactly what I want to be doing."