healer /’hēlər/
noun
– a person who claims to be able to cure a disease or injury using special powers
– a person or thing that mends something
– something that alleviates a persons distress or anguish
An individual known as a “healer” (in any capacity of the word), is often perceived to be one of great spiritual prowess and strength, beyond the reach of agony’s vice — like grip. In actuality, it is the scope and magnitude of their capacity to suffer that creates the framework of a healer’s life and determines their ultimate destiny.
A healer’s ability to experience emotion and empathy is immeasurable and far surpasses the understanding of most. It is the innate, burning, sleep depriving need to alleviate pain and suffering in all forms that fuels the journey. They don’t know how else to live or be. Author and religious scholar Andrew Harvey once said “follow your heartbreak.” This is all the healer knows how to do.
Profound transformation can only be born of tremendous chaos. This is how the soul of a true healer is forged. Through personal tragedy…heartache…indescribable loss…
We cannot be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.
We cannot be saved from drowning by someone who cannot swim.
We cannot look for healing from someone who has not been forged by the fire.
I do not mean know “of” pain…
I mean to know it intimately, as a mother would know the feel of the child in her belly.
A vital organ that is part of the larger system, an essential component that the machine cannot function without.
Without this…these complexities…this intensity…these feelings…there is no healing to be had.
They are inextricably, painfully, beautifully connected.
The heart of a healer is a heavy one. Yet, it is the prolific amount of love that lives within it that urges them to push ahead…to run with open arms towards the menacing darkness that threatens to envelop humanity. For what you don’t know is that when a healer tends to your wounds, they are indirectly tending to their own…and every ounce of healing that is experienced begins to spread like a contagion of peace…a virulent strain of love… that is how growth and true change begin. One broken heart at a time.
This is what we were created for.
We harness our pain, our own deep rooted suffering and metamorphose every ounce of it into sacred tools to assist others.
We couldn’t and wouldn’t have it any other way.
These are the wounds of a healer.
Originally published at www.thehealingroomnyc.com on January 14, 2017.