Cum infirmi sumus, optimi sumus.
(Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 7.26.1)

Pron = koom ihn-FEER-mee SOO-moos, OHP-tih-mee SOO-moos.

When we are sick, we are at our best.

Comment: Odd, isn't it? Actually, Pliny says that he learned this little gem from a friend who was recently sick. He goes on to explain that when one is sick, one is not "bothered" by the various passions that come with be a healthy human being.

I am not convinced, as Pliny was, that human passions are a particular problem. In fact, I am fairly convinced that Stoicism, inserted in various forms of Christian morality, have created a rather unhealthy disregard for otherwise natural human emotions, feelings and sensations, of body, mind and emotion, and that seeing them as a problem or a "sin" only creates more disease.

However, my disagreement with this Stoic-Christian view is no reason to throw away the basic idea here. When we are sick, we can, momentarily, find some clarity that we don't have when all is well. I say momentary, because the ego can create quite a fortress out of illness. However, an illness can clear the deck, so to speak, and allow us a clarity about what is important, what is honest, what is real.

The same thing is possible for perfectly healthy folks. This is the great benefit, in my view, of a daily practice of meditation--however you define it. A time to get clear on how life is unfolding, be brutally honest, strip the facade off that our egos have layered on, in privacy and silence. In my own experience, we either choose to get quiet, or we get sick. Either way, we get a glimpse of wisdom that makes us better people.