Grow

“People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.”- Plato

We don’t see our progress. We don’t see how far we’ve come. We don’t see our growth until someone points it out. We can’t stop it. It just happens. We heal. We move on. We get bigger. We get wiser. We grow. Embrace it. Love it. Fight it. It is still going to happen. We grow when we least expect it. It comes in spurts. It comes with pain. It comes with joy. We grow.

Heal

I remember when ET brought a dying flower back to life. ET was one of my favorite movies growing up. It was my first introduction to sickness and healing. I remember Elliot and ET being quarantined. ET was turning white and all he wanted to do was go home. Interesting enough, ET had the ability to heal those around him, but not himself. We all have the ability to heal. Our bodies were created to heal themselves. We can heal emotional scars by releasing that anger, pain, and disappointment. We can heal relationships with apologies. Healing does take time. Healing does require change, and healing requires rest. Make it a point to heal before the new year.

Broken

Most of us may not realize that we are all broken. We all have scars. We have open wounds and sore spots. We have calluses. We have areas of our lives that did not heal properly. We have issues, but these are the things that make us beautiful. These are the things that shape and mold us. These are the things that strengthen us. We are all beautifully broken.

There is a method of mending in Japanese culture called “Kintsugi.” It is related to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which calls for seeing beauty in the flawed or imperfect. The repair method was also born from the Japanese feeling of mottainai, which expresses regret when something is wasted. Our scars are not wasted. Our wounds are not in vain. Our brokenness has a purpose, and our purpose is beautiful.

What Hurts?

Have you ever been to the doctor and they asked you, what hurts? You typically begin to list a series of symptoms. A good doctor will not just treat the symptoms, but try to find the root cause of your pain. If you're like me, you will Google your symptoms and try to self-diagnose. Typically, I'm pregnant, have cancer or dying according to WebMD. I had to stop using WebMD. Over the counter drugs usually alleviate the symptoms, but not the cause. It's a temporary fix. Most of us put band-aids on bruises. We treat surface injuries. We deal with only the things we can see. True healing goes beyond skin deep. Sometimes, we have to revisit that childhood pain. True healing requires us to acknowledge that we are broken and need to be healed. True healing requires us to answer the question, what hurts?