I have been sick for a couple of days and to be honest I am a terrible sick person. I don’t like to take medicine to treat symptoms, I don’t understand why we don’t treat the illness instead of the symptom. If they would put me in a hotel room with popsicles, Coca-Cola and some chicken noodle soup, turn on the TV to ESPN or old movies and leave me alone until I am well it would be best for everyone concerned.

Sickness wasn’t part of the plan either. The thing we call the fall in Genesis 3 brought all this mess into play. The only thing good about being sick is that I spend more time praying than I normally do, most of it repetition for relief, but sometimes in there I can do a little bit of reflection. It generally takes me half a day to say, “OK, I am flat out and not going anywhere or doing anything so what do You want to talk about?”

Every time this happens (which is rarely) I am reminded how much time I spend being busy instead of being available, to God, to my family, to my parish… I realize that first day back when I try and do too much that those days spent apart from busy-ness are truly important and that into that time God has spoken and blessed me. Hearing his voice and responding to it rather than all the other voices that speak to us is critical. (see Genesis 3.17)