Healing
by Amy Brugh
The need for healing has been on my mind and in my heart. I was listening to George Michael’s Heal the Pain and while the lyrics may not feel entirely applicable, just hang in with me and roll with the metaphor.
Merriam Webster defines healing as:
the act or process of restoring to health
the process of getting well
We all need healing, whether we acknowledge it or not. I think it’s acutely felt in Minneapolis. I jokingly say that I’m not a “candles and feathers and hugs” sort of person. But I need healing too.
My buddy described our tendency to skip over the process of healing, like skipping a rock across water. There is despair and confusion and a need for healing beneath each of those skips. I hope we can be intentional about healing processes with ourselves and with each other and allow ourselves to move toward healing.
What are our opportunities for healing? How can we heal our ourselves, our organizations, and our communities?
Start with ourselves. Acknowledge the need for healing within you. Dedicate resources toward your own healing, in whatever form works for you. Do your breath work. Be with people who care about you. Go to therapy. Move your body. Eat ice cream and potato chips. Take baths. Let your sadness and rage show and then somehow try to release them.
Ask the people around us what they need. Have a conversation about healing with your friends and family. Talk about healing with your colleagues and within your workplace. If you are in any positional leadership role (parent, caregiver, staff leader, teacher, whatever), take the responsibility upon yourself to make these conversations happen. Dedicate resources toward healing in the ways that work for you and the people closest to you. Listen carefully. Have a meal together. Allow extra time. Try someone else’s way.
Call on our leaders to invest in healing. Acknowledge that pain and harm are deeply rooted in systemic mistreatment and individual acts by people with power. I’m tiring of waiting for a mayor or governor or whomever else to engage in a conversation about healing. I don’t see it and I’m not hearing it. Let’s ask them to do something real about our collective need for healing. And if they can’t or won’t, let’s get new leaders.