Starting The Journey

This work is not about illness, but about the journey through illness to our essential health. Illness and health recur continuously and yet we are not free to live fully until we finish dealing with our fear of change and loss. We are not free to love fully or to extend a truly helping hand until we are able to let go of that which we cherish the most.

Most of the time we live with the belief that all will stay just as it is. When illness comes we are shocked for a moment out of our stupor. We see that time may not be endless and that right now we must say what has to be said, and do what has to be done.

Many, many questions arise in our minds when someone close to us is seriously ill. It takes awhile to realize that these questions do not have one answer. They have many answers and may have different impacts on us at different times.

In a sense a finger is being pointed in our direction. These questions are demanding a response from us. Life itself is demanding a reply.

The journey through illness is the journey to find an answer. Here are the ways some of the questions can be asked:

Why did this happen?
What is the cause of my suffering?
How is suffering truly relieved?
What is the best way through serious illness and beyond?

This work is dedicating to discovering our questions and learning how to be with them in a new way. It is dedicated to finding our own unique answers and living them fully. This may also be called the path of our own inner knowing.

Often we run from the pain of this matter into forgetfulness. When pain comes we offer drugs. Instead of offering ourselves, we offer denial. We may not have ourselves to offer. Indeed we may be running away from what is needed most.

But if we stop running, even for a little while, we can see that the true comfort will come from understanding and being available. The real healing comes from truth. And, as we learn to listen closely, we find that the illness itself has a teaching, it's there to be learned from and listened to.

This work is offered so that in the face of illness and loss we may become steady and simple and learn how to extend a truly helping hand.