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| The Mystery within... |
Just like slow food cooking is better for you than fast
food, I am coming to appreciate the same is true with the slow healing of my
knee that I sprained a week ago.
Each day brings a little more mobility, and lessening of pain. My slower pace allows for more keen
observation and reflection. Even
though I really miss being more active, especially outdoors, I have noticed I
am less anxious about what isn’t getting done. I’ve also gotten some help with yard work from my daughter
for which I am grateful. Some ingredients
for hanging on to my calm appear to be acceptance for what is, a lowering of
expectations for what needs to get done, and becoming more comfortable with
needing help.
The On-Being guest Krista Tippett interviewed this past week
was timely for me. He was Dr.
Bessel van der Kolk – Restoring the Body: Yoga, EMDR, and Treating Trauma.
He is also author of “The Body Keeps the Score.” He spoke of the importance of the
social context in how trauma occurs as being very important because the body
holds the memory of those sensate experiences. My initial knee injury and subsequent surgery was the result
of a cross-country skiing accident during a January thaw when I went out to work
off some significant frustration.
My left ski caught a patch of mud and I did a 180-degree turn on that
knee well over twenty-five years ago.
Could my knee need a talking to about its time to forget? Or is this just a continuing learning
benefit from an initial trauma?
This needs further thought and investigation.
My memoir, “God Never Hurries,” is like a cookbook on slow
healing from abuse and the significant challenges in caring for parents. My troubles have been my greatest
teachers because they caused me to search for my truth, which I then found in
everyday experiences and the natural world. I learned it’s a lot easier to stay miserable than to make
changes in my life. I came to see
everything as a both/and thing, got a grip on my complicity in my troubles, was
infused with courage, and came to know true freedom from forgiveness. And I am now becoming aware of a
growing compassion for the other that knows no bounds. There may be no end to trauma benefits. Just going deeper.
What if we saw our traumas as potentially rich training opportunities?
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