The serious illness or unaccompanied grief of a friend, colleague, neighbor or professional associate can serve as a wake-up call -- a poignant reminder to each of us of what is important in our lives. And what is not.
If we choose to become fully awake, we can allow 'the call' to stir us out of comfortable complacency or frenetic busyness and into a long over-due recognition that we are not human doings, but human beings. Perhaps we can then begin to realize that we humans are not merely a sum of our functional working parts, as measured by the size of our balance sheet or the scale of our IQ, but human beings, capable of, and called to, compassion and caregiving, consolation and community.
We might even re-examine our lives and priorities and rediscover how to live for the good beyond ourselves in new and enriching ways. In this way, we can become reacquainted with the blessings in our own lives -- blessings of health and comfort, faith and family -- blessings that it is all too easy to take for granted when things are going well.
So next time the phone rings and you receive the news about a friend in need ... answer the call. Become a part of a consoling community.
Note: If you have recently been diagnosed with a serious illness, if you are caring for someone who is ill, or if you've had such an illness for awhile and would like added support, please refer to The Guide for Care and Support. It includes print and take forms for scheduling medications, a daily log, and questions to ask your doctor at diagnosis and during treatment.
