An amazing person, leaving behind an awesome legacy

I recently stumbled upon a headline during my break at work. "Blogger Posts His Own Death."

Of course, I was intrigued, if not a little confused, as typing may prove difficult in that particular state. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by what followed. See, the article was about Derek K. Miller, who was a pretty well-known blogger in the tech and science circles. He had started his blog about ten years ago, and in 2007, he was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer. The posts that chronicle his journey through chemo and radiation, as well as his drive to live a "normal" life despite the fact are nothing short of inspiring.

And yes, he did ask his family to publish his "Last Post" after his death, and it is amazingly well-written and insightful. He doesn't sound angry, bitter, or resentful. Instead, he sounds grateful for the time he had with his family and the experiences he was able to have.

I love the fact that he was incredibly straight-forward about his particular circumstances. Yes, he had cancer. Yes, it was going to kill him. No, he wasn't going to let it completely consume his life. And really, he didn't let it.

Derek Miller reminded me that life is still, and is always beautiful, regardless of one's worries and troubles. We get so mired down by the petty things, constantly moving those things up our priority list until we completely lose sight of what's really important. It seemed to me that Mr. Miller never let cancer obscure his vision of what was truly significant to him.

I'm sorry I just found your words, Derek, but they serve as a powerful reminder  that life is full of complications, yet so very precious to us all.

Here's the link to the blog itself: http://www.penmachine.com/