Dillusion

"All of what we crave in life - security, beauty, youth, energy, power - is out of our control.  All of what we fear - loss, decay, illness, aging, death - will come to pass."  Pema Chondron

Healing

"When you are in pain or feel ill or chronically tired, take few moments before seeking treatment to seek healing.   Resist the urge to tranquilize or avoid pain."  Andrew Weil

Surviving

"How does one survive cancer? Of course -- good doctors, good insurance, good luck. But the real healing comes from not being forgotten. From attention, from care, from love, from being surrounded by a community of those who demand information on your behalf, who advocate and stand up for you when you are in a weakened state, who sleep by your side, who refuse to let you give up, who bring you meals, who see you not as a patient or victim but as a precious human being, who create metaphors where you can imagine your survival. This is my medicine, and nothing less will suffice."  Eve Ensler

Forgiveness

Please do not believe me
if ever I should say that you've upset me.
Sometimes I forget the true source of my feelings.

You cannot make me sad,
impatient,
angry,
or otherwise dis-eased.
Only a hope or expectation of you on my part,
which you have not fulfilled,
can move me thus.

Yet I am much too human
to be without hopes and expectations,
and I am also much too human
to live always in the knowing
that my hopes and expectations
have no claim upon your being.

So if I say that you've upset me,
please forgive me for attempting
to disinherit my own self's creation of my pain.
And please do not ignore my deeper message:
I care enough about you
to include you in my hopes and expectations.
~Noel McInnis

Forgiveness

"If I don’t forgive you, you’ll go right on with your life, but I’ll have backaches, nervous tension, or disease from the festering sore of this unforgiveness of you in me. [So] I won’t give you [that kind of] free rent in my mind." ~Della Reese

Illness and Anger

"Anger over illness is possibly the will to live expressed in a very negative way."   Rachel Naomi Remen

Growth

"You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses, and if you do not put your head in the sand, but take the pain as a gift to you with a very specific purpose."  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross