The Spiritual Side of Cancer

I read a helpful  article today in the Times Union--Voices of Faith section about spirituality and illness. And of course there has to be a spiritual side of cancer. It doesn't mean religious or churchy or even prayer--tho prayer in it's broadest manifestation--using Centering and manifestations has to help.

It made me think a lot about what spiritual practices are valuable especially for people who are Agnostic or Atheist. It includes being quiet, meditation, being in nature, going to the ocean, prayer as stating intentions and writing.

Here's the link to the article by Michael S. Barry from today's Times Union:

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Spiritual-side-of-illness-4587465.php

Take Your Vitamins and Don't Forget to Pray

You want to live long and look good so you do everything the experts suggest: You eat salmon, wear sunscreen, lift weights and jog. You floss, eat five fruits a day; take your Vitamin D and you pray. Pray? Yes, God is now part of a healthy lifestyle.

It turns out that God can save your life as well as your soul. According to the newest research on aging and health we need to hit both the treadmill and our knees on a regular basis. This new push for God isn’t coming, as you might expect, from the church folks, but rather from doctors, specifically neurologists.

The timing is perfect because we are a pretty nervous bunch right now.  The world is tilting; economy struggling and our fears about it are multiplying. Dr. Andrew Newberg is the spokesperson for the new field of neurotheology and his focus; “How God Changes Your Brain” is also the title of his new book. In it he details extensive research showing the impact of prayer, faith, meditation and yes, exercise on longevity and health.  

In a key section of the book they rank the ways that we can improve our brain function—the overall key to long life--and while aerobic exercise is number three, it turns out that the very best thing you can do for your brain is to have faith.

Can’t you just hear this at the gym, “What’s your workout?” “Oh I do 20 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes of weights and a couple of rosaries.”

But there is something else. The selling of belief as self-improvement strikes me as another kind of materialism, albeit a spiritual one. We typically recognize consumerism in the race to bigger houses, cooler cars or the latest techno-gadget. But maybe in a recession we drop those in favor of other kinds of consumption, like using God for your own good.  In most faith systems the goal or end point is about turning away from self and toward others: Love your neighbor. Mend the world.

So there’s a paradox here: trying to be more spiritual for selfish ends knocks you right off the spiritual path. It’s like humility; just when you think you’ve got it, you don’t. But maybe God doesn’t care; maybe he’s OK with being the bait to catch himself.

So if you’re getting in shape for spring, think of “Him” as Vitamin G.

A Prayer for New Year's Day

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
     to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
     unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
     that it is made by passing through
     some stages of instability—
     and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
     your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
     let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
     as though you could be today what time
     (that is to say, grace and circumstances
     acting on your own good will)
     will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
     gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
     that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
     in suspense and incomplete.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

HALT

This is hard. He is on the couch. I am racing from room to room. The to-do list strangles me. I’m mad and I’m tired. HALT they say in AA; notice when you are Hungry Angry Lonely or Tired. I am all four: H A L & T. Stop and breath. Stop and pray. What can I take off my list? What really matters? How important is it?

God Hold My Fearful Heart Today

God hold my fearful heart today.
Work scares me
Love scares me
Marriage scares me
Fragile bodies scare me
Hold my fearful heart today.

Amen.

Beyond Faith. Where is God in Cancer?

Does God cause cancer? Prevent it? Choose who gets it? Will he cure it? Cure it for some people? Our view of God is revealed in our prayers: God as punisher, as father, as parent or as Santa. In prayer do we ask for magic? Special consideration? Or do we ask for strength to cope with what is? Perhaps we petition for someone else’s cure? Do we believe that some people should have --or not have --difficult things, like cancer, to deal with?

A common first response to a diagnosis of cancer is, “Why Me?” Some people stay there and others move on to, “Why not me?” Implied in this is a sense of God or Higher Being or Mover in our lives or the universe.

Cancer often leads to these big questions. And that sends us looking for resources, experts, and theology. Now, a new book “Beyond Faith” looks at an intelligent person’s belief in God. The book by former trial lawyer, William Penick, deposes God in a thoughtfully imagined interview—yes, with God, and shows with humor and insight into human nature, how we create God.

Thomas Merton's Prayer

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadows of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thomas Merton
Thoughts in Solitude, p. 83

No Port No More

Today back to St. Peters Hospital to have John’s port removed. The port was installed seven months ago and he received chemo thru that opening in his chest. A handy device but an alien object.

I was cranky all morning though. Truthfully, it was a bad hair day but I was also unhappy to be returning to this hospital which feels like the scene of the crime. Amazing how those feelings come back. The fear during his initial surgery…seven hours became 11 and then 14. His pain and my pain and her pain too.

The port was installed In June and chemo began a few days later. Since then our lives have been about cancer and chemo when they are not about love and sex. Quite a distillation.

But today I was there again, wandering hospital hallways, finding the cafeteria and gift shop and the chapel. This was the chapel that I visited so often that long week when he could not talk or sleep or eat. That scary week when—I realize now—we didn’t even know how much scarier this could eventually get. So that chapel was home.

My prayer today was for his health, for her peace, and for my freedom.