"...The wounded healer in all its many forms will do this one act over and over and over again.... it will create an ally ship between the body, the soul, the mind, the heart and the spirit, in order that the body consort be healed.
It will create an ally ship. The wounded healer will not leave any part out. The wounded healer takes all into account..
....Scar clan includes those who have suffered being in the midst of others suffering and yet they managed to maintain strength and sanity and deep heart despite any lack of sanity or strength or deep heart by others, for others."
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
I know I don't have lots of clarity about how to be an advocate without alienating people along party lines, how to be a warrior without divisiveness who also doesn't minimize the real fear and threat and danger many of us feel for ourselves and others.
If we know about ACEs personally and intellectually we can be desperately driven to prevent others from experiencing them. That means ACEs in the Adverse Community Events way as well as in the Adverse Childhood Experiences more commonly used way.
But if we feel fragile or wounded or freaked out sometimes we want to hide or turn away. And other times, because we've been wounded, we want to scream and yell and warn.
Maybe we wonder if our past wounds are clouding our judgments or emotions or if our past experiences make us more sensitive and intuitive - or both? I wonder about these things...
I had to hit pause on sharing, on output and even on some activism this weekend to refuel and restore and regroup, to take my kid to dance and Staples and to get some extra sleep.
I've turned to poetry, stories, and music to help me.When I am anxious and afraid and agitated. They help calm and center me. They remind me that there is wisdom in the world beyond words. They remind me that there are no new problems, not really. Humans for all time have faced trauma and ACEs on the personal level - even before using those words. Humans for all time have lived with and through and fought political and social injustice and even persecution.
And amidst it all, there have always been wounded healers.
We can be wounded healers too, for ourselves and for one another. We don't have to wait to be 100% healed to create ally ships. That's where I'm at today and thanks to poetry and story and art and rest I feel a bit more sane and steady,
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