Zen and the Art of Illness

Zen and the Art of Illness is a collection of gentle and insightful reflections on single days sometimes single moments in a year-long journey that began following her husbands cancer diagnosis. In it Ronna invites us to transverse the landscape of life-threatening illness neither in fear nor in hope and yet not without hope. Ronna combines the personal and intimate voice of the spouse moving through the days of diagnosis treatment and recovery with snapshots both visual and textual of moments of stillness or transition. Zen and the Art of Illness offers remarkable insights into times when life and death were a possibility when memory making as a conscious practice helped provide a life-line into the future. Rarely do we get the opportunity to view philosophy made real through practice but those familiar with Ronnas teaching on hope will see her match the talk of hope with the walk in hope and find inspiration in her micro-stories of hope love and surrender to the moment.Dr. Jaklin Eliott Associate Professor Counselling and Psychotherapy School of Public Health University of Adelaide