Updated on March 10, 2015

Change is predicated on duress. Very little happens in the presence of happiness and contentment. Without having the very strong impetus of a slowly receding waterline, I seriously doubt that pre-reptilian fish would have freely chosen to struggle over many, many generations to climb out of the water into a foreign world where feet replaced fins and even breathing was difficult at first.

What’s amazing is that the sum-total of Life seems to be made up of an energy that has this extraordinary desire to thrive and capacity for remarkable adaptation. Said another way, the inherent nature of the Universe seems to be one of learning and incorporation that necessarily leads to an ever growing inter-related harmony. Species with the greatest ability to adapt and incorporate flourish best.

At its extreme, suffering presents itself to the host as a life threatening energetic challenge. Faced successfully, the host ultimately adapts, incorporates, and is enhanced by the experience. Faced unsuccessfully and Life looks toward other avenues. Being able to reflect on this bigger picture is only possible when reasonable health and a sense of security are present.

From this larger perspective, suffering can be seen for the bellwether that it is, a sort of heralding in of lasting and meaningful change. As such, we can see that suffering serves a very important purpose and from this prospective is Good. Get too close and suffering becomes claustrophobic and all consuming. No Good can be seen.

At least for me, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) was indeed life-threatening. The ultra-extreme anxiety, panic, fear, feelings of dread, and the like were unimaginably bad. To be honest, I don’t know how I managed to stay alive. It’s only now, as the illness subsides, that I’m beginning to realize I’ve been irrevocably changed.

At an upper level, I see much more clearly how medicine and money intermingle leaving those that need help with political compromises rather than what’s actually best for healing. On a deeper level, I’m beginning to realize my place in Life as one of simply relating to what is. I no longer expect that tomorrow, or even the next hour, will be the same as yesterday. They will be as God chooses. My task is to be present to what manifests and to bring as much Love as I can muster to whatever the situation.

If my brain only works at some fraction of what it did when I was young, I don’t pine over the loss. If anxiety creeps in, I don’t exaggerate or diminish its aspects. I’m here now and no more. By being able and willing to accept a much wider range of experience, I’m once again able to relax a bit into Life – to develop a new level of Trust. It’s a more balanced and mature relationship. The rose colored glasses are gone.

In closing, even if all of life on this planet ends due to Man’s folly, who knows what may come of it? Perhaps we are just one of many thousands of experiments being run by God across Universes-of-Time to see what model works best – is most harmonious and reflective of His/Her divine nature. If we fail, we can be glad in the thought that we at least tried and in the doing contributed to this Greater Good.