Yes. You ARE Healing.

You see the quote. It catches your eye and seems to resonate with your soul. “Be careful of how you treat people. Everyone is fighting a battle you may know nothing about”. My question becomes, “If we are all fighting a battle at some point, how did we manage to get beyond the last battle?” I wonder about the back story. Indeed we are not all fighting the same battles we were a few years back. So what happened to that previous story? The one that seemed to darken your days and haunt your nights? Healing. In its’ unpredictable form. Healing happened. But how quickly we forget the painful, earth-shattering journey.

As I flip through my journal pages that span the years, I waver between a smile, a laugh, or a tear. The process is almost comical at times. And when I filter it through the stages of grief, I can see how I walked through each step less than gracefully. From leaving an abusive marriage to single mom woes and now navigating through another broken relationship. The process has been messy and unpredictable. Nothing seems to align with my timeline or even my structure of how things should be.

Nevertheless, the healing happened. Sometimes it was slow. I can look back to see the pages of anger, even to the point of rage. Pages filled with desires to get even and an overwhelming desire to extract the pain from my chest. But as with life, the pages turn, and the sun slowly begins to peak through the clouds. New days bring new hope and less desire for what was or what I thought would ever be. This is the face of healing.

You see, my friend, healing is not a mere destination. It is a mountain hike with twists, turns, and, more frequently, drops. But on this hike, there are various mountains that allow us to see from a new vantage point and peer at the beauty that comes from putting one foot in front of the other. Fall is a great time to reflect on the process of healing. Fall presents us with chilly mornings, fallen leaves, and preparation for the cold nights ahead. It is a reminder that we must let loose our grip on the various flowers we thought would reblossom and grieve the loss of what we thought would grow. We must hunker down and prepare for the long, cold nights, with the hope that spring is coming. It always does. Just as sure as the earth spins on its axis, the chance to bloom will come again. Yes, my sweet friend, you are healing. It may be painful. It may feel hopeless, but just as the seasons change, so will you.