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Meditations On Diabetes: Strengthening Your Spirit in Every Season

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Diabetes has been my "search engine" for meaning in life. Diagnosed in 1957 when I was 10 years old, I found diabetes to be a teacher, a means to learn about life and about myself. The greatest lessons have been spiritual which comes as no suprise for the seeking of meaning is a spiritual process. In the Foreword to my book, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen (author of Kitchen Table Wisdom) writes: "The pursuit of meaning is often the doorway to the spirit. The language of the soul is meaning. In the setting of a chronic illness, people instinctively reach for personal meaning, people who have never considered this dimension of life before. Meaning helps us to see in the dark. It strengthens the will to live in us." Reflecting on the lessons of 42 years of having diabetes and 25 years of working as a diabetes educator I have concluded that it is the spiritual component in life which gives us wings to rise above challenges like a chronic illness, the death of loved ones, the serious injury of a child-- all challenges I have experienced. Each reader is invited to seek and find his or her own meaning by meditating on quotations like: "Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'" (The Talmud) Who are the angels in your life? Biblical wisdom ("A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." Proverbs 17:22) is interspersed with the wisdom of people like Helen Keller, Martin Luther King, Jr., Henry David Thoreau and (a delightful discovery as I did the research) a proverb from a 12th century African (Kanem) civilization: "We will water the thorn for the sake of the rose." As I state in the Introduction, "The purpose of this book is to help you find your meaning in your life experiences and to develop a philosophy that is both helpful and hopeful. Some of the aphorisms in this book are new to me, discovered as I researched this book. Other thoughts are old friends that have delighted, inspired and comforted me for many years. May they connect you with your thoughts in ways that will lead you to strength, peace and hope."