Illness is a monastery

Illness is a monastery with its own rules, asceticism, silence, and inspiration. — Albert Camus

Came across the below quote yesterday. I loved it.

I have so often said that my plight was one of forced monasticism…one that bears much good fruit even if also painful. So that is the positive spin on all this. Dark nights of the soul do bear fruit.

This quote and thought keeps good company with yesterday’s post: More on When Friends Disappear During a Health Crisis

This too supports the illness as monastery stance and has been a favorite of mine for years. Sacred illness:

“A sacred illness is one that educates us and alters us from the inside out, provides experiences and therefore knowledge that we could not possibly achieve in any other way, and aligns us with a life path that is, ultimately, of benefit to ourselves and those around us.” – Deena Metzger

Besides also being sacred, I see chronic illness both holistically and kaleidoscopically because the variables in every human being makes all illness endlessly variant regardless of diagnosis. It’s far more complex and harder to hold the whole picture. It also requires patience and mindful attendance for long periods (no quick fixes.)  So life and illness being a monastic/spiritual pursuit is a reasonable frame to consider.

And you’ll find other posts below where I explore the concept of life in general being the monastery. The life of contemplation has been democratized.

• Life is a monastery — regardless of marital status
• Spiritual practice with partners and family as Zen masters
• When things are most challenging, we have great opportunity to heal and become whole
• Information and inspiration for those with chronic illness

NEW: Chronic illness: a kaleidoscopic view – All Signal

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