Reading: #64: Control Is An Illusion (Lydia Slaby)

“Control is a coping mechanism,” says author (Wait, It Gets Worse), cancer survivor, and total life reinventor, Lydia Slaby. “It works until it fails.” And it failed when Slaby was 33, a freshly minted JD/MBA with a new job in Chicago and was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma that featured a tumor the size of a grapefruit on her sternum and heart. Two years of emergency care—including open-heart surgery—left her clear that her high-powered, uber-stressful life had to change. “The old path fell away; it was a gift,” she tells CoveyClub founder Lesley Jane Seymour.  Now at age 40, the “process of dismantling and dismembering” has allowed Slaby to find her true voice and her ability to share her journey and story in writing. “Disease picks and chooses,” she says. “I think it does show up when there are lessons to be learned.”