60 Years In: Still Dodging Lightsabers but Enjoying Retro Screen Therapy
August 5, 2025
“You can live each day going from joy to joy—like a sunflower that turns to face the sun as it moves across the sky. It’s not about having a problem-free life, but about focusing on the light. Sunflowers still have shadows, but they are always behind them.”
-James Clear, Author of Atomic Habits and keynote speaker
Tragedies. Those devastating, haunting events in our lives that incite the question, “What did I ever do to deserve this?”
“When tragedy strikes we often wish life would go back to the way it was before,” says Beverly Vote, who heads up Breast Cancer Wellness Media and is one of my most influential mentors. “However, tragedy can sometimes transform us in unimaginable ways.”
I’ll raise my glass but won’t drink to her statement because I’m in a duel with my A1C to see if I can lower it naturally without going on medication. Hey, I’m still fun at parties, though, despite the fact I’m not drinking much alcohol these days!
But back to Bev’s striking observation. One of my most frantic thoughts after receiving my cancer diagnosis was an attempt to remember what it felt like to have no worries. When I couldn’t erase images of my bald head resting on a casket pillow out of my mind, I decided to instead figure out how to deal with and eventually annihilate my diagnosis. As it turned out, my eventual transformation was birthed out of that initial moment of morbidity.
On a similar note about tragedy and transformation, television news survives by sharing globally tragic stories that test our humanity. One such event was 9/11, and I was honored to recently connect with Carol Lin, former CNN anchor who was the first national anchor to report on the September 11, 2001, attacks, just three minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
This video clip (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBBtT0cpmzs&list=PLcTKXAlP4BOPtICGbE4eeKkZij93bro2m&index=2) of Carol’s reporting—including that horrific morning—is chilling. A month after 9/11, she deployed as a correspondent to the Afghanistan/Pakistan border for CNN. A few years later, she was six months pregnant when her husband was diagnosed with a rare, fatal cancer.
After his death, she retired from CNN in 2007. A few weeks ago, Carol reached out because she had read Unlikely Gifts Unwrapped (thank you, Jen Marnowsk, for making the connection!) and was struck by how much she and I have in common. We conversed by phone and agreed we share the belief that tragedy, however gut-wrenching, can ultimately lead to clarity and healing if properly processed.
During our subsequent exchanges, Carol asked if I would read what’s called an advance reader copy (ARC) of her upcoming book, When News Breaks: A Memoir of Love and War, and share my thoughts.
Well, I did read When News Breaks, and WOW. It’s a mesmerizing story, and I highly encourage you to pre-order it now and prepare for a fabulous treat when it releases December 9. I am an avid devourer of great books, but reading Carol’s ARC was the greatest indulgence I have enjoyed in years.
Life has taught me many nuggets of wisdom, but the unlikely introduction to Carol reinforced my belief in this: Exceptional tales instinctively wait for the ideal moment to be shared.
Including stories that emerge from our greatest traumas. Like the summer during breast cancer treatment when I planted green beans in my garden and sunflowers bloomed instead.
Thank you, Carol, for being my newest unlikely gift.
To great storytelling!
