Advent Healing

Healing

 

Today’s theme had me stumped.  I thought about setting up some items from the medicine cabinet for a strange first-aid still life.  But that seemed rather desperate and contrived.  I thought about taking a picture of one of the scars on my body.  But that seemed rather morbid and kinda gross.  And like every other day that I have felt stumped, the solution fell into my lap as the day wore on.

The details are irrelevant.  Let’s leave it at the fact that a member of my family was wronged.  Let’s leave it at the fact that it was done in a way that had my blood boiling to the point where I could barely think straight.   I knew I needed to talk with someone. I knew who that person was—someone who had been in my situation before (multiple times.)

I asked her to call me back.  She did.  We commiserated about how tired we were of this individual repeatedly taking advantage of our willingness to forgive out of a desire to do what was best for the larger crowd.  We noted how similar this incident was to so many prior incidents.  And then, we began talking about ways to move forward to correct the wrong that was done—how to find a solution to the problem that was created.  She suggested I call someone from the past that might hold the solution.   But, we knew this person had recently moved and neither of us knew how to get ahold of her.

Her son was once a scout in my troop—an eagle scout of the finest calibre.  When he left for college, I friended him on Facebook so that I could keep in touch.  I sent him an IM about how to contact his mother.  We chatted for a while.  I discovered that although school is going well, he was in a low spot in his life.  As I talked with him, I felt my own anger slip away.  I don’t know if I was able to help him through his troubles or not.  (I hope that he knows there are adults who deeply care for him other than his parents, who “have to” care for him.)

I don’t know if the healing was or was not mutual.  I do know that the support I received from Gianna and the act of listening ever so briefly to someone else in need did bring healing to my angry heart.