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I was listening to a tape about health during my hospital stay, and it defined health as the ability to fully participate in one’s life. That stopped me. I had to rewind the tape and listen again. Maybe I’d heard wrong, lost my concentration; surely I must have missed something. But no. The tape said, “Health is the ability to fully participate in one’s life.”

It was quite a jolt. Here I was, hardly able to get out of bed by myself, but I was participating fully. I was smelling my roses and listening to my tape and trying to figure out why some of the nurses seemed mad at my nurse and enjoying my broth and looking forward to my next visitor. Was I, in short, being healthy?

I had to cry over that for a while. I had been thinking that I’d lost my health. I had been grieving that loss, even while doing everything in my power to get it back. But if health is the ability to fully participate in your own life, then it is possible to be vibrantly healthy in spite of handicaps, lurking illness, pain, even depression. It is possible to fully participate in your life when you’ve had cancer. The gift of illness, for as long as one survives to enjoy it, is the motivation to even more fully participate than you might have if you had stayed blissfully well.

I have a friend who is a long term cancer survivor. She has gotten a lot out of being in a cancer support group in her small town. One of the regular features of this group is that every semester the local school of social work sends one of its (usually young) students over to observe and learn. The young social work students are often stunned at how happy and free these cancer survivors seem, even though many are enduring difficult treatments, relapses, and the possibility of premature death.

The group members get a big charge out of explaining to student observers that the group itself helps them to take their illness and wring its gifts from it, so they can return to the rest of their lives knowing what is important to them and determined to participate fully. That is health.

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Rev. Christine Robinson

senior minister at Large Church Consultant

Christine Robinson has just retired from her 39 year position as the senior minister of First Unitarian in Albuquerque, and now consults with large congregations. The Albuquerque kept her busy for all those years by outgrowing its buildings, programs, and governance structures, but she’s also the proud mom of a successfully launched young adult,caregiver for two 90 year old parents, and one of the authors of three books of reflections to seed small group spiritual discussion,Heart to Heart, Soul to Soul, and Listening Hearts. She’s passionate about finding authentically UU expressions of spirituality into our worship, family, and individual lives.

She stays in touch with the world and her body through gardening, and a Kung Fu practice.

Latest posts by Rev. Christine Robinson (see all)

• Riding the Waves - September 1, 2017
• Face to Face with Mystery - June 1, 2016
• What Now? - March 1, 2014