Illness: Foe or Friend?
The death rate is going up in many areas of the world. This sad statistic has motivated me to share what I’ve learned in my almost 40 years of struggling to achieve and maintain health amidst many who sought to undermine it. Know that I am not speaking as a medical doctor since I gave up my medical license many years ago. I am speaking merely as a human being who cares deeply about my fellow humans.Each illness we endure is signaling us of a need. These needs may be physical, emotional, mental, and/or spiritual. Since we are all physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual beings, to be 
wholly healthy, we must look at the unmet needs in each area.
Most of us have been taught, unfortunately, that illnesses are a threat that we must battle to eliminate rather than a communication that seeks to be heard. In our attempts at speedy elimination of each symptom or disease process, we often miss what they are poignantly saying.
wholly healthy, we must look at the unmet needs in each area.Most of us have been taught, unfortunately, that illnesses are a threat that we must battle to eliminate rather than a communication that seeks to be heard. In our attempts at speedy elimination of each symptom or disease process, we often miss what they are poignantly saying.
I woke up one morning this past week with a weepy right eye that was swollen shut. I had had conjunctivitis for the preceding few days that was clearly getting worse instead of better. I tuned into my eye as to what it might be communicating. As water from this eye dripped down my face, I felt its sadness and sought to discover what it was sad about. The following words came to mind.
“No one has wanted to hear what I see! Most people prefer fantasy to reality! I have been brutalized for speaking the truth I see!”
Many memories flooded my mind of my father and his cronies punching my eyes or shoving all sorts of unclean items into them when I saw something other than what they wanted me to see.
In medical school, I was trained to think of psychopaths as wayward young males. In fact, these most traumatized souls can be both male and female. They can be quite accomplished in putting forth facades of help and healing. And, they can go on to head families, corporations, and nations, ever-leading followers to their detriment.
“I learned to close my eyes and see no more,” the sharing of my swollen-shut eye had returned.
My heart ached as I heard my eye’s sad story that my current symptoms spoke so clearly.
My eye’s voice continued, “We body parts are sharing our experiences and our feelings about these experiences through all of our afflictions, but so few are willing to listen. So few! WE NEED TO BE HEARD!”
The water in my right eye dripped down my cheek, and my med school indoctrinated mind opened to the truth of what I was hearing. My heart felt the enormity of grief that I had been carrying for decades in this particular part of my body, and I lost any desire to medicate it away. I joined my weepy eye and cried.
If you have any body symptoms, pause and tune into what they are saying to you.
If you have any questions or would like some help with this tuning in, please contact me.
