This weekend, I had the great pleasure of candlelight, a handmade quilt, and a book (as well as other things). I read the book, How To Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers, by Toni Bernhard. I heard about the book on Facebook of all places and via Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance.This book is written by a woman who was on a certain life track so to speak, who was a law professor of twenty years, involved in work, family, and personal life, active and healthy and who very suddenly became very sick with flu-like symptoms and, at the time of writing the book, has not yet recovered. The illness changed her outside life dramatically, eventually no longer able to work, and being nearly house-bound. The illness added new and great challenges to her inner world: so much loss and change — a crisis on all levels.

It is an important book in part because it gives voice to some of the experiences that are and can come from having a chronic illness both for the individual who is sick and for ca