"Even the wounded have the capacity to heal others"

[nandm]

Even the Wounded Have the Capacity to Heal Others.


Four months after our 14-year-old daughter Kate was hit by a car and nearly killed, we had to return to the hospital for some follow-up surgery. It was a triumphal return of sorts because by all accounts she never should have survived the accident. But not only did she survive, her recuperation had been nothing short of miraculous, and her prognosis was good.

The day after the surgery, when she was understandably woozy and recuperating in the pediatric ICU, a funny thing happened. One by one, totally independent of one another, the medicatl staff who treated her came up to her bedside, each saying essentially the same thing. "Kate, you wouldn't remembert me," they'd tell her (and of course she wouldn't; she was still barely conscious at the end of her stay there), "but I worked with you when you were here this summer. It's good to see you." Nurses, doctors, therapists, clergy, social workers, and even volunteers joined this queue until, after about a dozen or so had come by, I pulled one of them aside.

"Nancy, it's wonderul that you've all taken the time to come by---it means a great deal to us," I told the nurse, "but I get the sense there's something more going on here than meets the eye. I get the sense you folks need to do this."

"We do," she told me. "You see, for every ten kids who come to us as seriously injured as she was, there's maybe one Kate, one kid who beats the odds and makes it through." She told me that they needed to see her because it's that joy that sustains them through all the pain and sadness they see the rest of the time. "It's what keeps us coming back and doing our job."

I think of that extraordinary staff as having served Kate---and us---through the most difficult days of our lives. I think of them as healers and as portal of hope, and showing them that in final anyalysis we are not alone; we all have the capacity to sustain one another through our shadowed valleys.

By Eric Kolbell
From the book:
50 Truths Worth Knowing.

I posted this story because it reminds me of how this discussion forum works for each of us. We are all tied to each other, when we reach out and share our experience, strength, and hope with another we are helping their healing process. We don't have to be well or perfect to help another we only have to be willing to reach out.

Thank you, each of you for reaching out and being a part of my recovery today.

Judith