The Author

My Name is David Michael Como Jr. At sixteen, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, in a late stage, just three months following a car accident during a rain storm, with my best friend. I was the driver. He went into a coma from head trauma. The guilt of that event and a deep imbalance in my life, at that time, I believe, left me vulnerable to cancer. At the same time, I let go of my first love. It was hard as I battled this thing trying to kill me. My mother-a nurse, became my closest support, but I always felt that it was my responsibility to defy this threat. I nearly died several times before ending up in an isolation unit with an extreme case of disseminating shingles. Barely eighteen, and down to 107 Lbs. from 150 Lbs., I was weak and emaciated, and yet, unwilling to give up. To my family, the future appeared grim. In my mind, my resolve stayed wicked. My doctors were telling my family that I was not going to make it through the night. At this point, for my mother, her prayers became desperate. My body was fighting cancer, shingles, and a hospital contracted systemic blood infection-all at the same time. My temperature reached 105 degrees, while my entire body was covered with shingles. The end, to everyone, seemed inevitable; yet somehow, a light of hope deep within me, still glimmered. I hung on for dear life. It was then that something happened extraordinary. I experienced an "acute,massive, immune response. All at once my body strove to survive in a last ditch effort to overcome death. One week later, I walked out of the hospital with no signs of cancer, the shingles-completely retreated, and the blood infection had passed.
In the years that followed, I encountered many setbacks from the awful effect of therapies given to me earlier on-to combat the initial cancer. This placed me in and out of the hospital most of my youthful years, I lost much time and sacrificed so many of the the things we tend to take for granted. My life was anything but normal. I then ran far from the stigma of having cancer. But distance wasn't able to calm my spirit. There was so much conflict within myself. I lost who I was and what I had become. There were many ups and downs that took so much to overcome. On one hand, I felt explosive vitality; the kind of vitality that can get you through anything, and on the other hand I was so hard on myself when I didn't meet my expectations-of healing or anything else that I aimed for. Often I pushed my body faster than it had time to heal; it pushed back even harder. I fell so many times. It was about this time when a wonderful young woman I saw on the television came into my life. Her name was Charlene. She was battling breast cancer for the second time at age 27. Her situation was dire. But Charlene showed the world that there are intangible strengths beyond the physical; she was brave. She stood alone against her adversary, but was in no way lonely; I knew what that meant.
We became friends for the next two years while she fought hard for her life. I was there; I witnessed. Knowing Charlene made me realize that I could not run from who I was. Knowing her made me see many things about myself that I wasn't able to see without her. Charlene eventually succumbed to her cancer at age 29. She was my hero.
Before Charlene passed, I promised her that the world would know who she was beyond her cancer; that the cancer would not define her. I'm trying to keep my word to her. I wrote a book that tells our story. It is called, "Defying Goliath".
This story then takes an unexpected turn. After my book was published, the girl that I referred to as my first love earlier in this letter, read the book and realized what she meant to me, from my words to her, scattered throughout my book. I didn't know that Linda had felt the same for me after all these years away from her; thirty years to be specific. I hadn't seen her for this long. She never knew until reading about herself that I had always loved her and regretted letting her go. I never knew that she loved me; that she didn't want to die without being with me again. We were just teens when love came to us; it came way too soon to appreciate it. Yet for some reason our love didn't die in time. It stayed alive-waiting for us, until we were ready. Neither of us really understood what had held our hearts captive to each other for so long, or why we were drawn to each other while living two separate lives. Something was tugging us back together, something much greater than ourselves. I thought that I would never be forgiven by life, or by Linda, for squandering such a precious gift of true love. But I was forgiven. Life forgave me; Linda forgave me. I was so far from home; there was a guiding light. It was as if we both stepped back in time and retrieved this forgotten love-cast away by me so long ago. Linda saved me from the perils of regret; a thought that can tear at your will until you can't bear it any longer. This love somehow managed to remain without nurture or notice. When all was thought lost, because of what I had been through, and how far from home I had drifted, I had been given a second chance in life, and now of true love; my first love! I've found that life rejuvenates, that some things are retrievable! I've found so many things to be true that many of us are unaware of. I want to share them. I want you to be strong-beyond your idea of what strength is! I can help to achieve this for you. Stay with me while I get my message together; it will be worth your patience-I promise.

David











Friday, June 19, 2009

These Higher Laws...

Humanity is a dynamic race. Above all other life in nature, have we realised ourselves, through the evolution of our creative mind. Like all liberation from structure, this freedom has brought with it a responsibility to the individual; ways of living, called "higher laws". No longer are the instinctual laws of life enough for the individual to thrive in a world of choice and thought. There has been offered by life, a greater path for him now, but it is not forced upon the individual; it is just there for him to take, in order to prosper. Though he has become accountable to himself, others, and the rest of the living, in this world, the individual resists this maturity in so many ways. The conflict we find ourselves in is when we turn away from these higher laws, or when we are unable to understand their presence in our lives. We want, but are unwilling to sacrifice. We desire, but do not know what it is that will quench it. So we say that we have to "find ourselves", to really know who we are; when in actuality, there is no distance between who we are and knowing who we are, there is only awareness and truth. Higher laws govern the individual who is aware, sensitive, confident, and true. It is a path to be taken by one and one alone.
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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Spirituality

Spirituality has many meanings in society, but its essential meaning originates within the individual. The truth of spirituality has nothing to do with church, organizations, cults or any fixed belief-new or old. Spirituality lives and breathes with life here and now, within each one of us. It is a reflection of the life force that courses through the individual, indicating how vital his will to live is. What the individual draws from in life to inspire him, bring passion, and sustain this vital force, becomes his religion. It is that simple. We have made this an issue to be exploited. Society has captured the shadow of spirituality, watered it down, and served it to the masses, totally diluted of its strength. We've even gone as far as deeming it "New age"; this, due to our total lack of understanding its principles. When in fact Spirituality is intricately involved in the delicate balance of the core of the individual. It has been so, since we broke free of our instinctual minds, thousands of years ago. We barely understand or relate to its true potential. Spirituality never leaves us; it only atrophies, where then, we know only traces of what could be. Our spirit, our will, our life force, is served by our spirituality. How this is done, then, becomes our religion.
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Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Mystery

In my book, "Defying Goliath", I alluded to a mystery that surrounds us. I talk about how, if we are aware of its presence, it can rejuvenate the most weary of us. You will not be able to see this mystery, hear it, or touch its vitality directly, and yet it exists without boundary; in you and in all that lives. It is everlasting and unwavering. It holds the most promise of all; greater than anything that I have ever known.
With my inner sense guiding me, I know it as it is. I will not perceive it, nor will I interpret it. To do so, would be to not understand it, and cause only conflict within. The mystery that I know offers purpose, meaning, and the virtues of higher law, to the individual-respectfully.
There is a way through life that is filled with good, strength and confidence; and only one way to know it--be sensitive to life, aware of your surroundings, and live vivaciously in the moment.
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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Trust

Trusting someone close to you with yourself can be a risk too great to take for some. We seldom realize that the most precious things in life come with some risk. To really live, you must be ready to be hurt; you must be ready to venture beyond your comfort zone, in order to play in this vital game we call life. Anyone can sit on the sidelines and watch life dance; it's another thing to get up and dance with life, unafraid of falling.
It is a wonderful thing, to observe the many facets of survival, but to experience the glory of survival is something entirely different. You will not realize this, receding with fear.
Trust is a notion that makes us hesitate, because we have all seen it break down, in some way or another. Trust takes bravery; it takes letting go of the old and letting in the new. But when it works, it unites, bonds and secures the most important aspect of all--relationships.
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