Has anyone considered the reality of being a wounded healer? Life and people wound us incessantly. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and hurt, even shame, then our inner darkness can neither be illuminated or become a light for others. We end up clinging to our bad feelings and beat ourselves with our lack of acceptance and hurt when what we should do is let go. When we dare to live as those who acknowledge the reality of hurt and brokenness and the reasons for it, vulnerable in the endless search for 'healing' and share this with others, then we become wounded healers. The wounded healer implies that grace and healing are communicated through the vulnerability of those who have been fractured and heartbroken by life. The fact is that in true love's service (yes, true love), only wounded healers can serve and benefit. Being tight, aggressive, angry, withdrawn only keeps one in a small world of self.
Let me give you a picture of one man who is a magnificently chiselled athlete, six foot-three, 185 pounds, twenty-two years old, and who has won 8 gold Olympic medals. He is a dazzling display of co-ordination, agility and grace, and the the crowds love him. Meanwhile, one of his attendants approaches with a glass of water. In his early fifties, he is five-foot-four and paunchy. He wears a rumpled shirt, open at the collar, tie askew. He has a thinning sliver of matted hair and is unshaven. His bulbous jowls and glass eye cause the spectators to look away and speak of him in contempt - pathetic little twerp.
However, behind his glossy delivery, the athelte's vacant stare reveals that the exterior does not inhabit his soul. Stardom has eroded his true self and left him an image of who everyone else wants him to be. But the attendant is at peace with himself, has found a deep inner healing, moves through crowds which despise him with peace and confidence, as comfortable as a hand in a glove in his servant role. He understands himself deeply and is full of gracd and compassion for others.
Here is the rhetorical question: so, who is the wounded healer here?