Once upon a time… a very, very, very long time ago, people began to live on the planet Earth, which was lovingly created by our Divine Parents.
At first, the people were lonely. As there began to be more and more of them, some things were more fun. There were people to share food and sit around the fire with. People to tell stories about the moon and stars. People to laugh with. And make art.
Other things got to be harder. There began to be things – like germs – which made people sick. Sometimes the people fought over this bit of land or water and people were hurt. And, so, there began to be healers.
Many, many women and men with different kinds of gifts. With medicine baskets filled with herbs and crystals. Healing leaves and even mud. Bits of red thread. Dancing and praying brought healing, too.
As time went on, older healers began to teach younger healers, because healing was a blessing the people needed. And more time passed.
As it did, people – mostly men – spent time traveling and trading familiar things for mysterious things that were new to them. And, while those people were beginning what we now call business, they were also discovering what we now call power.
At the same time, other people – mostly women – were farming so that all the people, including the children, could eat. And they were learning more about healing.
Time passed. Years and years. So many years that the people needed new words like century and era and epoch to tell stories about it. And things changed.
The planet began to be so full of people that it didn’t feel like there was enough for everyone. Enough space. Enough food. Enough power. And, eventually, enough money. One of the things that changed was the way people understood healing.
Now, we’re going to travel in a magic time machine, many, many years, to the time when one particular story-teller began to be a healer.
First, she wanted to heal animals. And she learned many things helping the official animal healer. But things got different, as things do, and she became a mom with a very special baby who needed all the things that babies do and so she decided to learn to be a people-healer. The kind known as a nurse.
School was the next right thing and she was very, very good at school. She learned many hard things from older women who had learned much of what they knew helping to heal soldiers in wars.
She was excited about two things. Helping to heal people, and being able to take care of her son.
As she began to work as a healer in a place called hospital, she discovered some things she hadn’t imagined. This was so long ago that all the healers-in-charge were called doctors and they were all men. Almost all the other healers were called nurses and they were mostly women, often known as girls or sweetie.
Eventually, our story-teller learned even more and began to help people heal in a place called surgery. Things moved very fast in surgery and the people who needed healing – called patients – needed lots of help.
There was lots of yelling in the place called surgery, which surprised our story-teller because the yelling seemed more about power than healing.
And she began to feel confused. You see, the people called doctors kept telling her that she didn’t get paid to think, which didn’t make sense.
First – weren’t they all supposed to do everything they could to heal people? And – second – it wasn’t like she was sitting on a log with Winnie the Pooh going, Think. Think. Think. Think…
She just knew. And she felt sad because she knew she needed a new way to help people. And she felt like many, many of the people who made the rules had forgotten that healing was meant to be about love.
Now, all this happened so long ago that it was even before cell phones! And our story-teller has been learning all the time, since then! And packing her medicine basket full of stories and paint brushes and strange things called filters and a tank top which says …able to choose and some really, really good chocolate and two huge dogs.
Here’s what she knows today… People learn and think in different ways. And that’s good! And sometimes it seems like people just know things because they notice and wonder differently, which is a special type of healing some people call alchemy. And that’s good, too!
Even though it often feels hard.
Some people don’t understand that. Yet.
But, when each of us makes space for our own journey – our own knowing – and we use that knowing for deep good… for ourselves and our families and the world – we are healers for ourselves and for all those who come after us. It’s a big journey…
So, what will you pack in your medicine basket?