How Do We Heal?
Journeying with Elephant - May, 2019
How do I bring healing?
Before you can heal, you must diagnose.
First, you need to get a better understanding of the problem. You will need to explore the roots as well as the branches. You will have to examine the terrain and the environment that led to the dis-ease. You may need to neutralize the acidity in the soil so that the seeds you are planting can sprout and really take root. And you may need to nourish the soil. When soil is dry and barren, nothing new can grow. Old remains may have hardened into fossils and you may need to soften the hardness and break these down. Only then can the old and broken parts be transformed into something new.
But this is a process. It will not happen overnight. You are now on barren land dreaming of a lush garden. There is work to do and it will require some patience.
Don’t lose heart. Keep nourishing the soil. Keep bringing light. You will begin to see the green tendrils and the tiny sprouts emerging.
New life finds its way when we make room.
Let the rain come. Let it create an uncomfortable mess that may be difficult to wade through. Find joy in that mud because that unruly mess will eventually become fertile ground for new ideas and healing.
You will need to keep your eyes open. You will have to relearn growth and healing. You don’t yet recognize all of the opportunities, lessons and gifts that are around you at any given moment. Think of the precious black chaga you found growing on your white birch tree. Until recently you only recognized the beauty of the white birch tree and observed the fungus growing on its dark scar with disdain. Now you understand the powerful healing of the black fungus that grows there on the wound of that tree. Yet, much like a cancer, that black fungus will eventually kill that tree.
You have many preconceived ideas about what is beautiful and what is ugly, what is useful and what is devastating, but there is more to understand. Just as mud can be your friend, and the black fungus that kills trees can be your friend, this adversity can also be your friend. Let the challenges serve you.
Seek out the wisdom, the answers, the healing in each moment. Seek out a deeper understanding of the problems you hope to solve. Or maybe stop looking for “answers” as if some kind of certainty awaits you. It doesn’t. Maybe just seek ways to grow. Those will always be available.