Living: the ultimate team sport

Stories that make a difference

Posted on October 11, 2018 Updated on November 17, 2018

As an author of a novel whose mission it is to make a difference in the lives of those faced with a horrendous terminal disease, I feel my stories-that-make-a-difference-detector is quite keen.

Ariel & Shya Kane’s new storybook, Being Here…Too, is one of those, and deserves 5 out of 5 stars. (Preorders now being taken for the Kindle version; both eBook and paperback will be released November 12, 2018.)

I was gifted with the opportunity to read the Kane’s latest book before its release, an opportunity I could not pass up given how impactful their books’ messages have been to me over the years. There is no woo-woo involved in what they offer a world conflicted and torn apart not by just political or global issues, but also those internal how do I live the best life I can live? struggles each of us face.

On page xviii, the following statement sets the tone for the direction readers can expect to go later in the book:

“life will support you if you let it”

The format of the book is such that each brief chapter contains a story of individuals who were not afraid to be honest/transparent about their failed efforts to make the best of their lives. In Chapter 8, co-author, Shya Kane, states, “…everyone has a terminal illness – it’s called life.” So very true. Many are those who have lost a loved one and/or prior to receiving their own terminal illness diagnosis had the mistaken notion that there’s always tomorrow, or I’ll live my life to the fullest another day when erroneously convinced another day, and another, will actually be granted us.

Living in the moment – “bypassing the mind to find the moment” – is where Ariel & Shya Kane suggest true fulfillment lies. We can either live life as a victim or as its author and my friends, after sixty-five years of life, I can declare that for me, fulfillment exists in the here and now, not in the past or the future. The stories presented within the pages of Being Here…Too will paint a clear picture of what it is like to be buried in thoughts that wipe out any chance of the present taking center stage in one’s life. Been there…done that…doesn’t work for me..at all.

The authors conclude the book by describing how dissatisfaction with life gets in the way of being fulfilled.

Over the years…we have come to realize that the only time life dominates you is when you are not living in the moment. When you are not being here, your hopes for the future create an illusion, a dream of how it will someday be better than it is now…

True freedom happens when the illusion dissolves and you live life directly in each moment – not as you would prefer it, but as it is.

The present is all we have, so why live elsewhere?

I hope you’ll not let another moment go by before securing your own copy of Being Here…Too.