One of my patients,a successful businessman,told me that before his cancer he would feel low unless things went a certain way.Happiness was “having the cookie.” If you had the cookie,things were good.Otherwise,life wasn’t worth a damn.Unfortunately,the cookie kept changing.

A year and a half after his diagnosis of cancer he sat shaking his head regretfully.“It’s like I stopped learning how to live after I was a kid.”

The minute you have the cookie it starts to crumble（v.崩潰；成碎屑）or you start to worry about it crumbling or about someone trying to take it away from you.You know,you have to give up a lot of things to take care of the cookie,to keep it from crumbling and be sure that no one takes it away from you.You may not even get a chance to eat it because you are so busy just trying not to lose it.

“Having the cookie is not what life is about.” My patient laughed，saying cancer has changed him.

Two years ago,cancer asked me, “Okay,what’s important?What is really important?”Well,life is important.

“Life!Life， any way you can have it,life with the cookie,life without the cookie.Happiness does not have anything to do with the cookie;it has to do with being alive.Before,who made the time?” He paused thoughtfully.“Damn！ （int.該死的）I guess life is the cookie.”

我有一位病人，他是一個(gè)成功的商人，告訴我，在他患癌癥之前，凡事如果沒有確定下來他就悶悶不樂。對他而言，幸福是“擁有小甜餅”。如果你擁有了小甜餅，一切都一帆風(fēng)順。否則，生活就一文不值。可不幸地是，小甜餅總是變化無常。

在他被診斷出患有癌癥的一年半之后，他坐在那里，茫然若失地?fù)u著頭。他說：“長大以后，我好像就不知道怎樣生活了。”

從你擁有小甜餅的那一刻，它就開始破碎，或者你就開始擔(dān)心它會破碎，抑或你開始擔(dān)心別人拿走它。為了守護(hù)你的小甜餅，為了防止它破碎或者確定別人不會從你手中奪走它，你不得不放棄許多東西。你忙于不讓自己失去它，甚至沒有時(shí)間享受它。

“擁有小甜餅并不是生活的全部內(nèi)容。”我的病人笑著說癌癥已經(jīng)改變了他。

“兩年前，癌癥問我：“什么重要?什么才是真正的重要?”對，生命重要。

生命!生命，無論你如何擁有生命。有小甜餅也罷，沒有小甜餅也罷，幸福與小甜餅并非息息相關(guān)，而是與生命的存在有關(guān)。可是，時(shí)光一去不復(fù)返，誰又能讓時(shí)光倒流呢？”他停頓了一下，若有所思，說：“該死，我覺得生命就是那塊小甜餅”。