Heavy Burden It Is

With a healthy dose of both candor and humor, someone has said, “To err is human; to forgive, infrequent.” –1

The acclaimed author and retired pediatric surgeon Dr. Bernie Siegel has written extensively on the connection between a patient’s attitude and approach to illness, and the healing process. Perhaps not surprising, love and forgiveness are chief among his “seven steps to healing,” Dr. Siegel writes:

“Don’t make physical change your sole goal. When someone comes to our groups saying, ‘I’ve come to get over my sickness,’ I tell them that’s the wrong reason. Come to obtain peace of mind, acceptance, and forgiveness. Learn to love. Learn about hope, love, acceptance, forgiveness, and peace of mind, and the disease may go away in the process.

“Dr. Siegel explains to his patients that, “The only way you can live forever is to love somebody — then you really leave a gift behind. When you live that way, as I have seen with people with physical illness,…