When I was diagnosed in 2004, internally I became focused on two critically important questions, 1) How do I face possible death? and 2) How does this experience become "the best thing that ever happened to me". 

1) I found it difficult to discuss "death" with friends, I always got back things like "you'll beat it", "I'm sending prayers", no one could open the door and go there with me. But I strongly felt that if I didn't know how to die, I couldn't really live. I went to a therapist with the specific goal of talking about death, but she couldn't do it. Finally, I landed in the library of Pathways Center  for Health Crisis. My answer lay in two books, "Heading Toward Omega" and "Health As A Realization of Consciousness". I guess for me, answers frequently come from books. I was also a budding meditator and fascinated with maintaining mindfulness of my true experience. Buddhism and Insight Meditation were very helpful in helping me get closer to the concept of Impermanence in a very different and logical way.

2) The first cancer support group I attended at University of MN Hospital took me a long way. As I listened to woman after woman tell victim and loss stories, some over 10 years cancer free, my immediate thought was "not for me". I had to LIVE this experience as another wonder of LIFE. My cancer experience made me so incredibly sensitive to LIFE all around me, I would weep at simple beauty. I pledged to my self that I would use this experience to forever hold a reverence for LIFE very close to my heart. I promised myself that I would always feel deeply and not get lost in the noisy distractions of our consumer competitive money me-fixated world. Your would have to ask Craig or my friends, but I think I have kept this promise.