The Wounded Healer

Bro.ken: Separated into parts or pieces by being hit or damaged.

"All human beings carry their own wounds, their own difficulties of relationships and their own anguishes."  Jean Vanier

"There's thorns on the cactus tree. There's thorns on the rose. There's thorns in the heart of me that nobody knows."  Anastasia's Eyes, Dan Fogelberg

"Cause I'm broken when I'm open. And I don't feel like I am strong enough." Broken, Amy Lee and Seether

"Through compassion it is possible to recognize that the craving for love that people feel resides in our own hearts, that the cruelty the world knows all too well is also rooted in our own impulses... For a compassionate person nothing human is alien; no joy and no sorrow, no way of living and no way of dying."  The Wounded Healer, Henri J.M. Nouwen,

"Then I see your face, I know I'm finally yours.  I find everything I thought I lost before. You call my name. I come to you in pieces so you can make me whole."   Pieces,  Red



Several years ago while going through a very difficult period in my life, the most difficult period in my life, I told my counselor that I didn't know what to say when people asked, "How are you?"  I told him that I thought they wanted to know and that I tried to explain.  He said, "When somebody asks, "How are you?" they are being polite.  The appropriate response is "I'm fine, how are you? And leave it at that."

The next time someone responds "I'm fine",  search her face. If her eyes betray her, ask in another way.  "Everything going pretty well for you these days?"  But if you ask, be prepared to listen.  You don't have to talk; just listen. You can make all the difference.