BERNIE By Bernie Siegel, MD
Understand Why
W
hen I was a young boy several of my friends became se- riously ill and one was hit by a car while bicycling to my
God make a world where terrible things happen? Why didn’t God
Go and ask the old lady on the hill that some call a witch. She is
As I walked up the hill I saw a holly tree had fallen onto the
path. As I tried to pull it aside the sharp leaves cut my hands. So I put on gloves and was able to move it and clear the path. A little further along the path I heard a noise in the bushes and saw a duck caught in the plastic from a six pack. I went over and freed the
As I reached the top of the hill I saw, in front of the old
woman’s cabin, a deer sprawled on the ice of a frozen pond. She kept slipping and sliding and couldn’t stand up. I went out, calmed her and then helped her off the ice by holding her up and guiding her to the shore. I expected her to run away but instead of running away she and several other deer followed me to the house. I wasn’t sure why they were following me so I ran towards the house. When I reached the porch and felt safe I turned and the deer and I looked into each others eyes before I went into the house.
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you needed to learn. One is that emotional and physical pain are necessary or we cannot protect ourselves and our bodies. Think of why you put on gloves and how you helped those animals. Pain and the needs of our loved ones. You did what made sense. You helped those in front of you by doing what they needed when they needed it.
for being compassionate in their time of trouble. What you have learned is that we are here to continue God’s work. If God had made a perfect world it would be a magic trick, not creation, with no meaning or place for us to learn and create. Mankind is not yet ready for a perfect world. We do not know how to appreciate per- fection. Creation is work. We are the ones who will have to create the world you are hoping for. A world where evil is to not respond to the person with the disease or pain whether it be emotional or physical. God has given us work to do. We will still grieve when we experience losses but we will also use our pain to help us know ourselves and respond to the needs of others. That is our work as our Creator intended it to be. God wants us to know that life is a series of beginnings not endings. Just as graduations are not termi- nations but commencements. Creation is an ongoing process and when we create a perfect world where love and compassion are shared by all suffering will cease.
to be called-needs no introduction. He has touched many lives all over the Planet. In 1978, he reached a national and then international audience when he began talking about patient empowerment and the choice to live fully and die in peace. Read Bernie’s
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