Lee Lipsenthal helped thousands of patients through his job as the medical director of Preventative Medicine Research Institute. His job was to help those with serious diseases to overcome their fears of pain and of death. Lee was extremely successful in making others feel comfortable in their time of greatest need.

Then in July of 2009, after a doctors visit it was discovered that Lee had esophageal cancer. Shocked, a non numb Lee stumbled through the every day motions of making his wife feel safe and his two children secure. Lee made a decision then and there that he was not going to stop living, just because he was dying. Instead Lee continued to live life even fuller than before realizing that every bite of life counted.... every flower, every moment, ever conversation..... Lee learned to enjoy Every Sandwich.

For me it is this one self that is not identified with cancer, pain, or fear. Cancer is just a physical event of the moment - it just is what it is.

Lee Lipsenthal

Late last year I read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and this book reminded me a little of that one. Lee, like Randy, had been given a terminal diagnosis.... and Lee, like Randy, decided that they were not just going to lay down and die... but choose to live each day as best they could.

Lee chose to live by rules that each of us should apply in our lives anyway:

Make unconditional love a practice.

Fun stuff happens every day, embrace it.

Find joy in your work.

Be committed to make a difference.

I have to admit I struggled with Lee's thoughts on God (or what he called the "God Neuroimagination") and some of the different ways he experienced or pursued spirituality. It did seem as though he did experience Jesus at one point and that I was thrilled about.

I liked some of the things that Lee did or suggested. Writing three things down each day that we are grateful for that happened that day before we go to bed? I love that! Who am I kidding? I need that!

Lee's story is bitter sweet. In his final year he reminds us that life is short for all of us. It's too short for fighting or separating yourself from family and friends, its time we all take a closer look at the things, the people we take for granted.

I lost my entire immediate family by the time I was 29 years old. I am a firm believer in experiencing the things you have always wanted to try, and to forgive because life is too short to carry the pain of grudge, anger, and resentment. Lee reminds me that each flower is one of a kind and the smell of a spring day is one well worth taking the time to breathe into my memory.