Embodiment, collage by Licia Berry 2010 (click above to see larger)
I’ve received some interesting responses to my last post, mostly in private. Seems I’ve hit a nerve in initiating a conversation about healing wounds of the heart.
I sometimes think of trust as a fabric, our original design, a picture of innocence, beauty and wholeness. Perhaps this is a metaphor for my concept of All Creation. In our interconnectedness, each strand of the web of life weaves together a marvelous tapestry.
When I experience pain, it feels like being cut; it feels like the fabric, or wholeness of me is compromised. Over time, with each painful experience, the fabric feels a little flimsier. I have found that mending what’s been torn asunder is not only key to my health and happiness, but what I am compelled to do.
I experience feminine energy as inclusive and embracing; therefore I think of the feminine as the Great Mender, the Tender of Wounds. I think the original tear in our fabric came when we were birthed from the womb of the Creator. Perhaps the journey to heal is simply a desire to be re-integrated, to be whole again. To be one with our Maker.
The definition of “healing” that makes the most sense to me is integration of the parts. I believe it’s the nature of the universe to call us back into oneness. I believe in mysterious workings towards what is best for us, what heals us. I experience the universe as conspiring to bring me what’s supportive of my re-integration of my parts. All the time.
This is why I have found collage work so instrumental. Collage is a beautiful physical metaphor for integration, in that collage means bringing together different parts and making sense of them. Like the alchemy of mixing different ingredients together and POOF, the magic of a whole new pie results, collage is a window into the mysteries of healing.
Each time the fabric is torn…for every time I experience a breach in trust…each time I feel the pain of separation…I can know that the response to heal the tear will be swift and balanced. It truly is the nature of things to come together after they’ve separated. The fabric mends almost as quickly as it tears.
