The gifts of illness

Sickness is seldom a welcome visitor, but it does usually come bearing gifts. It asks us to slow down, to focus our energy, to be aware of our physicality and to reflect about balance in our life.

The word ‘health’ shares its roots with ‘whole’. So illness gives pause for thought about what part of us is out of kilter. Is it poor diet, lack of exercise, mental fatigue, emotional stress or existential angst? Perhaps in today’s frenetically paced world, being sick is one of the few remaining ways to legitimise our need for rest and rejuvenation?

Whatever the reason, being ‘under the weather’ is a time for listening to our bodies and letting the miraculous process of healing (literally ‘making whole’) work its magic.