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.崩溃；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.该死的）I guess life is the cookie.”

我有一位病人，他是一个成功的商人，告诉我，在他患癌症之前，凡事如果没有确定下来他就闷闷不乐。对他而言，幸福是“拥有小甜饼”。如果你拥有了小甜饼，一切都一帆风顺。否则，生活就一文不值。可不幸地是，小甜饼总是变化无常。

在他被诊断出患有癌症的一年半之后，他坐在那里，茫然若失地摇着头。他说：“长大以后，我好像就不知道怎样生活了。”

从你拥有小甜饼的那一刻，它就开始破碎，或者你就开始担心它会破碎，抑或你开始担心别人拿走它。为了守护你的小甜饼，为了防止它破碎或者确定别人不会从你手中夺走它，你不得不放弃许多东西。你忙于不让自己失去它，甚至没有时间享受它。

“拥有小甜饼并不是生活的全部内容。”我的病人笑着说癌症已经改变了他。

“两年前，癌症问我：“什么重要?什么才是真正的重要?”对，生命重要。

生命!生命，无论你如何拥有生命。有小甜饼也罢，没有小甜饼也罢，幸福与小甜饼并非息息相关，而是与生命的存在有关。可是，时光一去不复返，谁又能让时光倒流呢？”他停顿了一下，若有所思，说：“该死，我觉得生命就是那块小甜饼”。