christopher niemann via the new york times

In his 2010 New York Times series, Christopher Niemann nailed what we think about everyday when we leave the house: However hard we try to weigh knowns and unknowns, unexpected “stuff happens” in our lives and in those around us. Some of what happens is swell, and some is really hard. It’s how to respond to the hard stuff that interests us.

Recently, on Clayton Cubitt’s blog Constant Siege, we found two amazing quotes by friends who had been diagnosed with breast cancer within a few days of each other. We view them as extraordinary responses to the question “What to do when things get really rough and scary?”

From Xeni Jardin, one of the founders of BoingBoing:

 “I do not know all of what’s ahead. I know a little. I know that there is a new kind of life on the other side of this thing. A changed mind and body. A new appreciation of time, and breath, and health, and life, and loved ones.” (…from her compelling blog post about her diagnosis.)

From Susannah Breslin: “Bad things make your brain stronger. They push you out of complacency and into the light.”

Words to live by.

Related posts: the scar project
grant achatz’s self-made challenge –> scaffolding dreams
howard rheingold: on becoming (“life…forks every day, in every moment”)
what to do when someone’s in trouble

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