the body wants to heal itself

i had a great weekend in nyc (went down friday, back up monday) and one of the many things that happened was a lovely, extended hang with one of my boys, alex. when i was in high school, there was a strong culture of mentorship (discipleship is what we called it) and met alex when he was 14 or 15. we realized yesterday that we’ve known each other for more than ten years. it boggles the mind.

anyway, in our sprawling catch up and conversation, we got on the subject of healing and he said something that really struck me. i imagine it came from somewhere, but we weren’t in a “cite your sources” kind of mood. paraphrasing alex:

speaking of the medical field, good doctors know the body heals itself. it’s their job to put the body in the best possible conditions to allow it to do what it does naturally. when bones break, we reset them, put them back in place, and then wrap them in a cast. the cast creates the condition for the bone to heal.

and i felt like the understanding flowed in. it makes so much sense across so many different areas of my life. whether on an individual, group, or societal “body,” the work of healing is what they tend towards. if the conditions aren’t right, the healing may not happen or may happen in a way that is misformed, but the body wants to heal.

as i think about this for group process, it’s abundantly clear that people who i associate with powerful healing energy are really good at creating containers for that. as i think about this for my own upcoming healing work in 2019 (which started this summer and is getting rolling pretty quickly right now as i work through discernment via the formation project), i am now keeping an eye out for this: healing wants to happen. how am i creating or putting myself in the right conditions for it to happen the best it can?

words / writing / post-processing
335w / 11min / 3min