Healers

“Those who really can receive bread from a stranger and smile in gratitude, can feed many without even realizing it. Those who can sit in silence with their fellow man not knowing what to say but knowing that they should be there, can bring new life in a dying heart. Those who are not afraid to hold a hand in gratitude, to shed tears in grief, and to let a sigh of distress arise straight from the heart, can break through paralyzing boundaries and witness the birth of a new fellowship, the fellowship of the broken.”

                                                           Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude

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Forget all the degrees

All the training, the classes, the workshops

They have their place

Mostly to save us from ourselves

But, healing is an art

Perhaps a gift

There are healers among us to be sure

They are born perhaps

But more likely they emerge

Struggling out of times of personal pain,

Out of fear, and failure

Out abuse and neglect

These are the people who have been

Beaten and hammered by life

But… have found something within themselves

That has allow them to continue to love

Continue to feel gratitude

And hope

When we are in that place of unbearable pain and grief

They can be there

Because they have been there

Oh, true, some are so wounded

Or so twisted and tainted by life they cannot be healers

Some who are closed and bound

But there are those who are still open

Still receptive

Still giving

But there are those who have walked through the fire

And emerged

Who have gone down to unto death

And arisen

There are healers among us

To be sure