Did Cancer Make You More Grateful?

One of my biggest cancer pet peeves is the one about cancer turning you into a new and improved version of your former self. Somehow cancer makes you a better person.

I don’t agree with that premise and have written about it in more depth here.

Another cancer expectation out there is that following your cancer diagnosis, you become more grateful. I’ve thought about this one from time to time and since it’s November, the month of thankfulness and gratitude, I’m wondering about it again.

Often you hear people who’ve been diagnosed with cancer, or any serious illness, say thereafter that they appreciate life more, take things for granted less often, and are, in general, more grateful.

My first reaction whenever I read or hear this kind of thing is to resist. I’m not sure why this is true, but it is.

I don’t give cancer credit for much other than upheaval and heartache.

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, gratitude is the hot topic of the month, or one of them anyway. I think I was a pretty grateful person before cancer, and I feel I am a pretty grateful person these days too.

Am I more grateful now?

Are you?

I am, of course, more grateful to be alive than I used to be. Or am I?

I am certainly grateful for many people and many things in my life.

But am I more grateful than I was before?

I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. I hope so. I try to be. But not because of cancer. I don’t/won’t give cancer credit.

Gratitude, after all, is an evolving thing is it not?

Gratitude is something we learn, improve upon, or better understand the complexities of over time. Cancer or no cancer, gratitude, like many things, matures over time.

As Brene Brown says in her book, The Gifts of Imperfection:

For years, I subscribed to the notion of an “attitude of gratitude.” I’ve since learned that an attitude is an orientation or a way of thinking and that “having an attitude” doesn’t always translate to a behavior… It  seems that gratitude without practice may be a little like faith without works – it’s not alive.

Gratitude is not just a feeling; it’s something which requires doing, and not just a now and then kind of doing, but practicing at least on a somewhat regular basis.

Finding gratitude involves effort.

I like that way of thinking about gratitude.

One of my blogging friends, Lisa Valentine, authors a blog called A Late Bloomer Living Gratefully. You should check it out sometime. I marvel at how Lisa looks for something to be grateful for every single day and then blogs about it. That is real commitment to practicing gratitude and also to the writing process, I might add.

Most people, me included, do not put that kind of effort into finding gratitude. Can finding gratitude become a habit? Lisa thinks so.

No matter where you are in your life and no matter how you feel about these things, gratitude is definitely one of those topics worthy of thinking about from time to time, and not just once a year on the fourth Thursday in November.

Being thankful for the life and all that we have right now in this moment, and feeling gratitude for those we are spending this moment with (even if it’s just yourself), maybe that’s enough.

Maybe it always has been.

I have much to be grateful for today and every day and one of these things is you, Dear Reader.

So, thank you for being out there. Thank you for reading and sharing bits of your life with me. 

I’m grateful. 

If applicable, did cancer make you more grateful?

Do you work at finding gratitude?

What is someone or something you are grateful for today, right now?

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Note from Nancy: I wrote about cancer language, cancer worry, survivor guilt, loss, pet grief, COVID-19, DIEP flap surgery, life as an introvert, aging, resiliency, and more in EMERGING. Available at Amazon and most other online booksellers. Click on the image below to order your copy today!