don’t wait to do things you have always dreamed of doing…
Today, I am in Kuwait for the day … sitting in a nice café in a luxurious, but small shopping mall.
My two meetings are finished, so I am just waiting to go back to the airport for the easy flight back to Dubai.
Anyways …
As I enjoy my cigar, I think about my copain, Tata … who just began her 4th round of chemo today.
Tata is Sophie’s cousin, and the person who raised her from the time she was a child – So she is like Sophie’s mom, and a grandmother to our girls.
When we moved to Dubai 5 years ago, I talked Tata into moving to Dubai with us, and ever the adventurer, she doesnt speak much english, but she moved from France to Dubai. She has her own apartment and life in Dubai, but I wanted to make sure she was near us.
Tata is my good buddy; my “Copain.” (I know I know … proper french is for me to refer to her as my “copine” because she is a female friend, but becasue she and I are such good “buddies”… jokingly, everyone refers to her as my copain.)
She is a tiny, chubby little French lady in her 60s … which makes our friendship so funny because I tower over her.
When Tata was diagnosed with breast cancer 5 years ago, instantly, she started to really seize her life.
Immediately, she started to learn how to paint, and took classes … as she said, “I always wanted to learn how to paint.”
Now she is an avid painter, and I proudly display 2 paintings she did for me in my office.
She also began to learn pottery …. As she says, “since I was a child, I always wanted to learn pottery.”
She took cooking lessons … because “she always wanted to learn more about cooking…”
Although she is well travelled, over the past 4 years (since she was diagnosed) she has travelled to many new countries she had “always dreamed of visiting…” Soon she will go to Kathmandu and travel around the Himalayas.
Over the past 6 years, she and I have enjoyed a dinner club.
Together, just the two of us, we have experienced some of the best restaurants in the world, in several countries … and we journal the experience; the wine, food, ambiance and overall evening together.
(she loves to small talk — and I don’t like to small talk, but as she is also my french teacher … we affectionately refer to our dinner club as “small talk dinner club”)
Essentially, she is living her life to the fullest.
I share this personal story in my blog because maybe it will have a positive impact on some of the readers …
I am very happy that my Tata is not giving up. She is living life to its absolute fullest.
But don’t wait until you get cancer to start to do the things you “have always dreamed of doing….”