S5 | Ep. 51 Edie Littlefield Sundby

"I'd rather die on a mule in Mexico then on a bed at home."

Edie Littlefield Sundby had just mortgaged her home to start a new business when she received a diagnosis of stage 4 gallbladder cancer. After months of treatment, she decided she needed to take a walk to "pour out her overflowing emotions.”

She set out on the impossible: Walking the entire 1,600 miles of El Camino Real "Mission" trail from Mexico to California. Edie trekked - dodging drug smugglers, rattlesnakes, mountain lions and scorpions - and concluded with a new perspective that allowed her to see every new day as a bonus.

Walk for a moment with Edie and me to hear her amazing lessons on living life, even one with devastating challenges, inspired.

NOTES:

• Look at every day as a bonus. Refuse to live a diminished life.
• Get a copy of Edie's newly released book The Mission Walker 
• What do you do when life throws a devastating challenge your way? When Edie was given a grim prognosis; she knew she had to do something extraordinary to continue living her best life.
• Her long walk allowed her to turn to God and inward.
• We all walk alone, together, in life.
• We have to have meaning in life… a purpose.
• One thing cancer teaches us is: Don’t Delay.
• There is an Indiana Jones moment in every life, where you realize you can’t go back… you have to go forward.
• Fear is not in the moment. Fear is in the mind.
• What will be… will be. All is well. All is well, ALWAYS.
• I’m uncertain when cancer will come back, but I have faith that when it does: All is well.
• When you realize we're all dying, you can finally start living.
• While alive, live. 

Edie Littlefield Sundby's Live Inspired 7

1. What is the best book you’ve ever read? The Bible. Ecclesiastes to me helps with uncertainty. It reminds us while alive, live. 

2. Tomorrow you discover your wealthy uncle shockingly dies at the age of 103; leaving you millions. What would you do with it? I'd have a Baskin Robbins ice cream with whip cream on top. Money doesn't change how we'd live. I'd buy a camper van!

3. Your house is on fire, all living things and people are out. You have the opportunity to run in and grab one item. What would it be? Not one thing. Nothing. Things are not what I hold in my heart. 

4. You are sitting on a bench overlooking a gorgeous beach. You have the opportunity to have a long conversation with anyone living or dead. Who would it be? My mother. I believe in angels, I believe in saints. I believe my mother was an angel and a saint.

5. What is the best advice you’ve ever received? It is advice from my heart, Ecclesiastes, my mother..."While Alive Live."

6. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself at age 20? All is well. All is well. 

7. It’s been said that all great people can have their lives summed up in one sentence. How do you want yours to read?When she was alive, she lived. 

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I can’t wait to see you here next Thursday! Today is your day. Live Inspired.

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