Wiccan Weekly Writings are first, an opportunity for me to talk about ideas brought up by various quotations from a Wiccan point of view and secondly an opportunity for members of this community, whatever their spiritual path or lack thereof, to enter into dialogue about these ideas. Please feel free to ask any questions you have about my path, my personal interpretation of Wiccan theology, or the religion in general. We Wiccans don't proselytize, but we'll answer questions. Please let this be a place of civility and respect for the truths of other people's paths. And now, onto the thinky thoughts....
The wounded surgeon plies the steel/That questions the distempered part;/Beneath the bleeding hands we feel/The sharp compassion of the healer’s art/Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.
--East Coker, T.S. Eliot
Sometimes healing comes with pain and destruction. It's something I'm contemplating as I set the appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. I can read, and the next step for this injury is joint fusion. But I also think of the way sometimes the best we can do is to challenge, to expose lies. Sometimes being nice isn't the best way. And sometimes what gives us the ability to heal is feeling pain ourselves, understanding with the depth of personal experience the feeling on the other side of the relationship.
The trick, I think, is not getting enmeshed in our own pain to the point that we cannot see the pain of others. I am called to help others, and so I must balance my own need to be healthy and protected against the need to be open and vulnerable enough to help someone else. And sometimes, maybe I need to be more vulnerable, not less. Sometimes I need to be more silent, and less wordy. Sometimes I need to trust that the words I need will come, rather than reaching for them. It's a paradox. But They do so delight in paradox, don't they?