I want to share a passage from a book called I Am the Door by Paul Ferrini. These words challenge me about how I live my life. I hear the dance and the lessons we learn in the dance all through them--the dance, healing, our community:
Healing Our Wounds
For many people, it is easier to let others see the pasteboard mask than the contorted face behind it. They are proud of the spiritual adult, but ashamed of the wounded child.
However, those who have the courage to face their pain pull the mask away. They give themselves permission to be authentic and to grow. Their willingness to be emotionally present with what they are feeling opens a sacred passageway. Closed hearts start to pulsate, bodies begin to breathe, and blocked energies are released. This is the first step in the healing process.
Other steps follow, for healing means movement. It doesn’t mean falling in love with pain, holding onto it, or building an identity around it. It is not a stationary train, but a moving one. Once you get on it, it takes you where you need to go.
Pain is the great equalizer. It enables you to be honest and authentic. It empowers you to ask for unconditional love and support from others and to be willing to offer the same in return. It connects you with a healing community of human beings whose shells of denial are cracking.
