Our whole lives we’ve been told that illness means there’s something wrong with us.  What if the reverse, in fact, is true?  What if illness is a gift that designates our power? Can we take what we’ve been told and have chosen to believe and turn it on its head? What if what we’ve been calling illness (chronic illness especially) is really the body’s only way, in an upside-down world, to create the environment the Soul needs to thrive?  What if chronic illness is the body responding to abuse of the Soul?  What if when suffering chronic illness (ie: fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, Epstein-Barr, migraine, vestibular disorders, anxiety, depression, panic attacks) there’s nothing wrong with us but is our body pointing out everything that is wrong with our world? What can we learn about our Soul and our body’s true needs through the symptoms our chronic illness throws at us? What happens if instead of fighting against illness we give our bodies what they need to feel safe in an unsafe world? How might our world begin to change when we start tending to the deeper needs of our Souls? How might our super-powers begin to emerge when we start tending to the needs of our Soul as dictated by our body?

Waking the Dead

I sang skin back onto my bones like a blanket’s warm embrace.

Enfolding in acceptance all that I am.

A dream within a dream of much more than simple acceptance.

A celebration really,

where a blanket becomes a robe of the deepest blood red.

Sovereign-earned.

Invoking a blessing of holiness

where that which I formerly condemned is honored as gift.

Where pathology is given a new name signifying magic.

And where illness designates power.

Then I sang a song of amens and hallelujahs!

Copyright Lauri Ann Lumby

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