We walk through so many myths of each other and ourselves; we are so thankful when someone sees us for who we are and accepts us.

There is no security, no assurance that because we wrote something good two months ago, we will do it again. Actually, every time we begin, we wonder how we ever did it before.

Finally, if you want to write, you have to just shut up, pick up a pen, and do it. I'm sorry there are no true excuses. This is our life. Step forward. Maybe it's only for ten minutes. That's okay. To write feels better than all the excuses.

This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don't wait.

Oh, my passion! That is what finally carried me through. Let passion burn all the way, heating up every layer of the psyche.

The first thing is how awful cancer was, the experience. When you first go through it, you're just trying to survive. But when I wrote about it, I really digested it. It was unbearable but I had practice behind me.

While I had cancer, I wrote these twenty-two personal essays about how I lived my life backed by Zen and writing.