Pilgrim’s Illness

Jim Forest on the Spiritual Journeys of the Sick & the Dying

Any trip, even a small, repeated journey from one prosaic location to another and home again, can become a pilgrimage leading more and more deeply into the kingdom of God. In my own case, the most common of pilgrimages has been going from our house to the local hospital, a five-minute bicycle ride from our front door. I make that small pilgrimage three times a week, normally on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Several years ago, a routine blood test revealed that the creatinine level in my blood was higher than it should be. My kidneys were gradually failing. Sometime in the not-distant future, the doctor said, I would need to use an artificial kidney machine to stay alive.

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