What cannot be cured—like death itself—needs to be accepted and so graciously surrendered to that we live and die with meaning. Meaning is the connection with all we have loved in life and with the whole that we belong to as a small part and yet also as a part that contains the whole.
Healers are not merely technicians who see death as failure and suffering as an embarrassment. Like artists and teaches and timeless wisdom, healers help us see the sacred in all things, whether they hurt or delight, from the direct source of meaning.
After meditation: “The Way It Is” by William Stafford in THE WAY IT IS: New and Selected Poems (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 1998), p. 42.
The Way It Is
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing,
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you can do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
