Connection, Not Completion: What Are We Healing For?

The drive to "do the work" is compelling.
Especially when we finally taste momentum.

I see it on the trail sometimes,
people moving fast, eyes down,
tracking miles like they're checking boxes.
Urgent. Focused.

But all the the while,
missing the light through the trees.
The way the moss softens stone.
The quiet that lives between steps.

That's how I used to treat healing too.
Like a project with a finish line.
One more protocol.
One more breakthrough.
One more layer peeled back.

As if the goal was to complete myself,
instead of learning how to be here -
in the now, present, and alive.

But healing is not a full-time job.
Living has to exist too - joy, connection, spontaneity.
Otherwise, what are we healing for?

Yes, nature is my sanctuary.
But I'm not trying to live only in the wild.

Connection to self doesn't only happen outside.
Other people reflect us too.
Sometimes painfully, sometimes beautifully.

And being witnessed in our humanity
is part of what roots us,
just as deeply as the trail.

→ Related: Blackberries & Grace
→ Also: Letting the Soil Rest

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* peer reflections: not medical or therapy advice. *