Diversity in Healing

​I have been wanting to write a piece on Healing for some time. It is a complex topic. There are so many different views, definitions, and perspectives that people bring to the surface for healing.

Today I am coming from a unique perspective. Every year I pick a word at the beginning of the year that symbolizes what I want to focus on for the next 12 months. Last year it was plucky. I love this word. I just wanted to continue to use that word which means ‘showing determined courage in the face of difficulties,’ or what I like to call a ‘just watch me’ attitude. But this year I was really having a challenging time choosing. I do not often enjoy doing those silly social media games or quizzes because they just feel manufactured and I do not presume to know how true they are, right?

Well, one late night I just gave in and answered the questions to the quiz offering one’s ‘word.’  The word for me coming up was Healing. I thought about it with my first reaction being that I had this focus my entire life. Though after a few minutes I realized something really big. I have been healing my life for as long as I can remember, from wounds from my upbringing to my younger years, teen years to young adult years; through trauma then to my eating disorder, to abandonment, divorce and single motherhood all issues I have spoken and written about before. So why would Healing be my word now?

What did Healing mean for me today? This turned out to be a good question for me.

With a little more introspection, I started to really consider the fact that I have two teenagers who are close to heading out to college, one within a year. I have spent the entirety of my life healing and maybe in that healing I had yet to accept I was worthy of healing, worthy of forgiveness, worthy of personal peace within and not define all that my life wasn’t in my wounds or failures, rather all the ways it was unfolding and which I was graced by on the journey. I had yet to embrace and release the Healing for the things that I had no control over and Healing for the life I had thought I wanted but did not receive.

And in this introspection, I realized the most important piece. My greatest fault is that I am always assuming my life is almost over. This comes from living through trauma and losing a lot of close people in my life too soon.
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So, now I am seeing that my life is not over yet; it is about to begin a whole new journey and how do I want to look at my Healing within those roads I have yet to walk? I am someone who always has a lot of dreams and aspirations of what I want to experience. I see now that Healing is always going to be a part of each adventure. The lessons of healing never end. I once saw this as defeating or a negative. Today, I choose to see it as a gift.

Healing is not a scarlet letter. Healing is a part of life; a part of our journey that lies within our wounds. And in the healing process, we become who we are meant to be.

How are you healing today?