Coping with Major Illness

Susan Kramer

Times of personal illness affect others, too.

Emotionally, there may be loss or change. And, perhaps the cost of care is a factor, and who is going to be a caregiver?

Currently, my father is weathering a major illness, and our step-mother, who was providing primary care, died almost a year ago. My brother moved back to the family home and cares for Dad full-time. This was possible because my brother is single; the move back home affected only him.

Major illness is a catalytic force of change for the one ill, other family members, or extended family as the case may be. Illness probably comes in all families at some point in our lives; it seems universal.

What I've found in coping with the illness and death of my mother in 1984 and now with my father's major illness in 2001 is that I need to do what is necessary to maintain my personal harmony in the midst of these changes and feelings of loss.

I spent 9 months of this past year ill. Now I feel recovered but it was another kind of process being the one ill and not the caregiver. During this period I had to learn to surrender to the best for that moment, and it was hard. I wanted to be up and doing and I didn't have the strength or stamina. I tried not to be needy to spare my husband much extra work.

What helped me recover faster, I think, was that I stayed as much as possible in consciousness of the Holy Vibration. This constant companion soothes and harmonizes thoughts and the body; perceived within the head under the crown of the skull, its gentle melody present during times of feeling good or in illness. During my mother's final illness I sat with her and stayed in the consciousness of the Holy Vibration. She told me that she had come to feel this Holy Presence and it gave her peace.

Coping with a major illness sends us back to our roots; roots of harmony and peace that are sunk deep in each of us; which we can draw from when in need.

Communion with the Holy Vibration, the Vibration of Peace, is a stabilizing stronghold for me when I'm sick, or being the care-giver, or just coping with everyday life.

Coping
and more than coping
recouping natural harmony in stressful times
by tuning in with the ever-present
Vibration of Peace