Living With Trauma: The Healers, 23

Keeping our expectations low is important if we want to forge ahead. The flaws and suppurating wounds to our collective humanity run very deep and have their origins in the most ancient past, long before recorded history. Those wounds are never going to heal. They have become part of who we are. In a way, those wounds are who we are. We are our violent, diseased and tragic history and this will be us long into the future. But how stranded do we have to be in this horror? Are there ways of reckoning with our ancestral woundedness, are there authentic ways of moving forward towards healing, will we ever leave behind the darkness and the shadow that we have cast on the earth? We are never going to live in a perfect world, but can we somehow improve things? Can we improve ourselves? Can the leopard change its spots? I think this is all possible, but that none of it is going to happen without a lot of hard work and sacrifice. We have become used to a very comfortable standard of living. Even though our species and this very planet are threatened with climate change through global warming, in two of the world's most populous countries, China and India, the general standard of living has been rising rapidly. Everyone is coming to expect to eat red meat every day and to have one car for the road and another in the driveway to impress the neighbours. Even after signing the Paris agreement, the world is still getting warmer, sea levels are rising, glaciers are melting and wild fires, killer hurricanes and floods are unleashing historically unprecedented fury over the earth. This is all being propelled by human greed and human laziness. There are no guarantees that we are going to survive long enough to really repent and change our ways, but it is worth a try. Perhaps as we look inwardly and really find humility we will also find and implement better and more lasting solutions to the crisis we have unleashed on the planet. Time will tell. I have often thought that if I knew I only had a week to live, that I wouldn't spend those seven days living riotously and partying my ass off. Nor would I try to buy time with God and live an exemplary virtuous live. Rather, I would stay focussed on the things that matter the most: enjoying each moment as a gift from God, and treating others with kindness and love. I would eat well but not lavishly. I would continue to go to sleep early and get up early. I would continue to do art, to read interesting things and to write this blog. I would continue my work in mental health services. But I would also walk humbly before my God and before others, because therein lies the secret to our healing and redemption. Humility, mercy and love.