“Life on earth is a whole, yet it expresses itself in unique time-bound bodies, microscopic or visible, plant or animal, extinct or living. So there can be no one place to be. There can be no one way to be, no one way to practice, no one way to learn, no one way to love, no one way to grow or to heal, no one way to live, no one way to feel, no one thing to know or be known. The particulars count.”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
Woundedness as the Source of Strength – Growth in Difficult Situations
Nobody escapes being wounded. We all are wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not “How can we hide our wounds?” so we don’t have to be embarrassed, but “How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?” When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers. ~ Henry Nouwen
This tree is a testament to growth in the most challenging and demanding of situations. Growing in the volcanic ash, this tree survives. Not without cost. Not perfectly. But still it grows.
You might think that volcanic ash would not be a hospitable growing medium, black specks, supporting little life. Yet, once the heat of the fire of the ash has cooled, life gradually returns. With rainfall, plants begin to grow. Animals return to the devastated area.
Volcanic deposits can eventually develop into some of the richest lands on earth.
Nature does not hide its woundedness. But it serves as a reminder that, given time and healing circumstances, growth ensues. Life continues.
In Search of Adventure and Ongoing Discovery
The best way to promote growth and healing is to take a trip, to go in search of adventure. Travel through space, whether by land, sea, air, or mind, is the universal metaphor for change. The hero(ine)’s journey creates new futures. New patterns and possibilities emerge.
Many cherished beliefs come into question. New strengths, insights and talents unfold.
When the journey is over and you return to where you began, you are faced with new beginnings. You are at a turning point, a place where new paths make themselves known.
If the journey is successful, you return a changed person, a hero(ine) in your own eyes.
~ Jeffrey Kottler
Finding Your Way, When Home is Being Lost in the Wilderness
“I love going out of my way, beyond what I know, and finding my way back a few extra miles, by another trail, with a compass that argues with the map…nights alone in motels in remote western towns where I know no one and no one I know knows where I am… I have lost myself though I know where I am.
Moments when I say to myself as feet or car clear a crest or round a bend, I have never seen this place before. Times when some architectural detail on a vista that has escaped me these many years says to me I never did know where I was, even when I was home.”
~ Rebecca Solnit, in A Field Guide to Getting Lost




