Excerpt from my upcoming book: Health-in-Sickness & Sickness-in-Health
We all have a calling, something the world is asking us to be or do. To be needed, to feel connected and to participate in our communities is meaningful; it protects our health and doesn’t stop with age or illness. My calling is to share my thoughts about a new health and medical model and attitude that are based on Process and community. Health and illness are processes that extend beyond the consensually accepted real world of objects and parts, of normality and abnormality, of individuals and communities. Disease and illness are real; they hurt and threaten. We need to take them seriously, protect ourselves and our communities, prevent them the best we can and get help to treat them and recover. Only then can we, with kindness and compassion, examine their meaning for us individually and as a community. From a Process perspective, disease and illness are mysterious; they bring forth aspects of our diversity. They are cracks, imperfections that let the light in and can bring us the gifts of courage, compassion and connection. They can bring us closer to our common humanity and answer our soul’s call for connecting to something greater than ourselves. I don’t want to minimize the pain and suffering that comes with illness, and I want us all to be smart and do our best to recover and stay healthy. Only after doing our best can we let go and follow the flow of experience and its wisdom. Push hard, work hard and when tired, hopeless, depressed and burned out, forget your perfect offering and remember the wonder of that endless breeze that carries you in her mysterious ways.