Feb 07 2008
The Journey
Learning, healing and spiritual growth can only take place within the individual. The teacher, doctor, therapist, and “healer” are only facilitators or guides. It is up to the individual to take responsibility for their own life; their own growth and well being. Free will.
The Journey
“One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.”
~Mary Oliver
“One day you finally knew what you had to do…” - but when does that one day come about? If ever. For some people there is so much mental “noise”, so much interference, so much garbage assailing us continually day by day, that those voices, shouting their bad advice, prevail.
Maybe one day the realization will dawn on the individual that he is responsible for his own life, growth, well being, and does not have to always be subject to or compliant with or restricted by many of the demands imposed by everyday life. He can “save the only life he could save”.
This is not a realization that just “pops into” one’s thinking. It is introduced into one’s thinking by external forces - maybe random occurences, events, - or by a concerted effort by someone who has the gift of bringing this to the individual’s attention.
The teacher, doctor, healer are not “only” guides; they are the important, possibly essential, agents in helping the individual in his journey.
And so I say, thank you, healer.