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<\/a>But there are other ways to think of healing, I think. And a strange one comes to mind,\nespecially for someone like me who is so opposed to and wounded by perfectionism:<\/p>\n
There is a passage in the Christian New Testament that is traditionally translated, \u201cBe perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Um, yeah, I\u2019ll get right on that.<\/p>\n
I have heard, however, that there are other ways of thinking about \u201cperfection\u201d in this passage, or even of translating it. That the Greek is more like, \u201cripe\u201d\u2014as in a fruit\u2014full, mature, containing all that it has grown to be.<\/p>\n
That feels like healing to me.<\/p>\n
As in a prayer Thorn Coyle taught me, \u201cI would know myself in all my Parts.\u201d<\/p>\n
All my parts. Wounded. Scarred. Taken. Knitting together.<\/p>\n
There is something here about how woundedness and healing can come together. How illness (ill-ness?) and disease (dis-ease) can coexist with healing. I\u2019m not sure of it all, but it\u2019s definitely on my mind today.<\/p>\n
I know that rest and movement, both, will help my body to be in its fullness. I know that sometimes I experience myself as healed, perfect, mature, ripe, whole, full. And sometimes I so don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
I know that healing from the slings and arrows of overculture oppression around fat, womanhood, mental illness, and other issues includes claiming my identities and becoming \u201cripe,\u201d which is to say, again, being able to choose. Not to control so much the external environment\u2014though working against kyriarchy for sure\u2014but to learn how to respond with care for myself.<\/p>\n What is healing for you? What is it? What is wholeness? What is \u201cperfection\u201d or maturity, ripeness, fullness?<\/p>\n I come to you today in the throes of a big healing, and I hope that all who are wounded (all of us?) may be healed, all may be blessed.<\/p>\n I also come realizing that spiritual practice is a big part of healing for me. It allows my spirit, my soul to grow roots and stretch toward the Sun. One of the spiritual practices that has been tremendously important to me at different times, and tremendously healing in its physicality, is gardening.<\/p>\n I invite you to a free call, ten days from now, on June 20th<\/sup>, Sowing Seeds of Spirit. You don\u2019t have to be a tree-hugging dirt worshiper (one of my favorite phrases!) to benefit from the call. We will be talking in physical and metaphorical ways about the benefit of gardening. Please do join us, and register here<\/a>.\u00a0 See you then!<\/p>\n<\/a>I know that healing from sexual assault, especially in the current environment when so many of us survivors are talking about it, is also about being full, being able to choose<\/em> my vulnerability. To choose with whom I speak and with whom I don\u2019t. It is a journey of experimentation, fear, and growing courage.<\/p>\n