What positive fruit can illness bring? Illness and the acceptance of our own mortality can decrease our attachment to a merely material basis for our being. We find that material wealth and worldly gains benefit us little. For many, we discover for the first time that our spiritual nature awakens and grows stronger as our physical strength diminishes and our bodies slowly accept their limitations.

—Matthew P. Binkewicz, Peaceful Journey: A Hospice Chaplain’s Guide to End of Life