When One Door Closes, a Better One Starts to Form
"One door closes, a better one starts to form."
Funny thing about doors. Everyone's obsessed with whether they're open or closed, but nobody notices that they only exist because of walls we've built ourselves.
I learned this the hard way in 2021 whenc a doctor looked me in the eye and said, "Grade 4 Glioblastoma. Seven months to live."
Every door I'd been walking through slammed shut in that moment. My career plans. My creative projects. My assumptions about tomorrow. Gone. Just like that.
And I did what most people do when a door closes. I panicked. Pounded on it. Pleaded with it. Shouted "Why me?" at the ceiling like the universe was some landlord changing the locks without notice.
But here's what I didn't see at the time: the universe wasn't locking me out. It was renovating the entire damn hallway.
That diagnosis didn't just close a door. It demolished the walls I'd been living inside. The ones that told me who I was supposed to be, what success looked like, how much time I thought I had to figure it all out.
And in the rubble of those walls, something started to form. Not a door I could see yet. Not a clear path forward. Just space. Possibility. The terrifying, beautiful in-between where nothing is certain and everything is available.
Four years later, I'm still here. Not because I found some magic door that opened for me, but because I learned to stop waiting for one.
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SHIFT
Alan Watts would probably say, "You didn't lose anything. You just stopped pretending that you had it." And he'd grin, sip his tea, and watch the smoke curl into the shape of your next opportunity.
See, life doesn't deal in straight lines. It deals in spirals.
The "end" is just the curve turning back toward something you couldn't have seen until the old version of you walked out of frame. That door closing isn't rejection. It's redirection. It's the cosmic contractor whispering, "Give me a minute, kid. I'm building you something that actually fits."
We've been taught to believe that doors are fixed. That opportunities arrive fully formed, hinges oiled, welcome mat laid out. But that's the illusion.
The door you're waiting for isn't waiting for you. It's forming WITH you.
With every choice to stay present instead of clinging to what's behind you. With every moment you resist the pull of the past. With every breath you take in this uncomfortable, beautiful in-between.
When my diagnosis closed every door I thought mattered, I had two choices: spend my remaining time mourning what I'd lost, or use it to build something that actually mattered.
I chose the hammer.
I started writing love notes to my future self. I began speaking about hope not as a wish, but as a strategy. I created the H.O.P.E. Algorithm, not because I had all the answers, but because I was learning to ask better questions:
• Hyper-Aware. What's actually true right now, not what I'm afraid might be true?
• Open-Hearted. Can I stay soft even when it would be easier to shut down?
• Persistent. What's one step I can take today, even if I can't see the whole staircase?
• Empowered. Who am I becoming in this hallway, and what door am I building?
The space between doors isn't emptiness. It's possibility taking shape.
And you? You're not stuck in the hallway. You're the architect.
The Alchemy of Sharing
This is why sharing our struggles becomes so transformative. When we speak our truth, we give form to previously invisible experiences. We transform internal chaos into external coherence. We alchemize pain into purpose, confusion into clarity, isolation into connection.
My brain cancer diagnosis wasn't just something that happened to me. It became the catalyst for discovering that impossible is optional, that hope isn't a passive wish but an active strategy, that we are far more powerful than we've been conditioned to believe.
The quantum field of possibility responds to the stories we tell with unwavering precision. When I shifted from "my story doesn't matter" to "my story creates matter," I stepped into my role as a conscious creator.
The Power of Community
What shows up when we take the brave step into our story is community.
I am grateful to and for all the wonderful thriving survivors I met this weekend. We all hold the beacon of hope and bravery, choosing trust over fear to truly share that impossible is just a word.
This is the magic of authentic storytelling. When one person has the courage to share their truth, it gives everyone else permission to do the same. Your vulnerability becomes their invitation. Your healing becomes their hope.
The Ripple Effect of Breakthrough "Mistakes"
If you haven't already, I highly recommend looking into donating, volunteering, or simply advocating for the American Brain Tumor Association. Finding a cure for GBMs and other brain tumors begins when we provide funds to researchers and doctors to explore and make scientific breakthrough "mistakes" that save lives.
History is filled with these beautiful accidents that changed everything:
Penicillin was discovered when Alexander Fleming accidentally left a petri dish uncovered, leading to contamination that revealed the antibiotic properties of mold
Pacemakers were invented when Wilson Greatbatch grabbed the wrong resistor while building a heart rhythm recorder
Chemotherapy emerged from studying the effects of mustard gas on soldiers during World War II
Viagra was originally developed to treat heart conditions but revealed unexpected benefits during trials
X-rays were discovered when Wilhelm Röntgen noticed a fluorescent screen glowing from an unknown type of radiation
Each of these "mistakes" has saved millions of lives. What breakthrough mistake might be waiting in the next research grant? What life-saving discovery might emerge from the next funded study?
The Natural Evolution
I am excited for what is coming. I feel the momentum building, and I am doing my best to let go and let things naturally evolve. I tried forcing things before and haven't ever seen anything good come from it.
There's profound wisdom in this surrender. Force creates resistance. Pushing creates pushback. Grasping creates scarcity.
But when we align with natural flow, when we trust the intelligence of life itself, when we become co-creators rather than controllers, magic happens. We move from efforting to allowing, from demanding to receiving, from forcing outcomes to dancing with possibilities.
The H.O.P.E. Algorithm in Action
This entire journey embodies the H.O.P.E. Algorithm:
• Hyper-Aware: Recognizing that our stories create our reality • Open-Hearted: Sharing our struggles with vulnerability and courage
• Persistent: Continuing to show up authentically, even when it feels risky • Empowering: Using our story to give others permission to embrace their own power
• Persistent: Continuing to show up authentically, even when it feels risky • Empowering: Using our story to give others permission to embrace their own power
Your Story Creates Everything
The momentum you feel building is your story coming alive, your matter taking form, your reality responding to the new narrative you've chosen to embody.
You are not waiting for happiness to arrive. You are creating the conditions for joy to emerge naturally. You are not forcing transformation. You are allowing evolution. You are not pushing against life. You are flowing with it.
This is the art of conscious creation: knowing when to act and when to allow, when to speak and when to listen, when to share your story and when to let it unfold in silence.
Your story matters because you matter. And you matter because your story creates the very matter of your reality.
Every time you've felt broken, you were cracking open to let more light in. Every time you've felt lost, you were finding your way back to center. Every time you've felt like you were starting over, you were spiraling deeper into your own truth.
You're not broken. You're not behind. You're not separate from the source of your own healing.
You are the story. You are the matter. You are the conscious creator of your own reality.
Hope isn't a passive wish. It's a strategy. And your story is the blueprint for that strategy's manifestation.
Learn more at beyondhopeproject.com
