We've talked a lot on the site for the last four years about integration as a "path" for fuller healing, and lately we've been posting what we hope you've found to be some thought-provoking quotes about what healing is and isn't. (You can find the whole set under either "Quotable Quotes" or under the "Tao of Healing" hyperlink.)
One thing we haven't explored explicitly, though now would seem to be the time to, is the purpose that tremendous suffering can have in our lives, which can be to clarify and move us towards what can actually become our lives' work. Strange that there would be any awesome takeaway from massive suffering, but it sometimes seems to be the case.
I have been reading the "Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche" book by Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson lately -- see yesterday's quote for an indication of some of the themes he covers. But mulling over Johnson's work, which includes the idea that a bout with tremendous suffering or illness can "break open" (almost like a nutshell) the self to something major within, like remarkable personal progress and understanding, that might not have come about any other way, I was struck today when I read the obituary of an older woman who had just passed away. It described her early life in fairly familiar terms -- schooling, marriage, family, job -- and then it mentioned that she suffered a serious illness -- and after she recovered, it went on to say, she became a talented painter, and her work was shown all over the world.
And it reminded me of how much this fit in with what Johnson was saying, how her capacity for whatever -- personal growth? artistic expression? broadening her impact on the world at large? -- was somehow connected to an initially very destructive episode -- her own brush with death.
I know I've experienced this in my personal life. A five-year struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome years ago, followed by a complete recovery -- turned my attention to things I might never have noticed before, including my now-present passion and compassion for post-traumatic stress disorder and veterans who suffer from it. Without my life-opening, life-breaking illness, and personal transformation through suffering, would I have either noticed or cared? Perhaps. But certainly not in the breadth or to the depth that I do now. Through illness, so to speak, I found my calling. How odd. But when it's your life and you look back on it, also how very true.
The Bible talks about how we learn compassion through our suffering, and because of that, can extend our compassion to others (2 Cor. 1). At the same time, it talks about affliction (which can be illness or suffering) as a "furnace," which tests us and refines who we are (Isaiah 48:10). Whether we look at those passages as religious literature or just plain wisdom, they seem to ring true.
And then we go back to Johnson, who makes it even more explicit:
"Some people may suffer a severe shock or illness before they learn to let the gold out. Indeed, this kind of intense experience may be necessary to show us that an important part of us is lying dormant or unused. In tribal cultures, shamans or healers often experience an illness that gives them the insight they need to heal themselves and then bring wisdom to their people. This is often the case for us today. We are still operating with the archetype of the wounded healer who has learned to cure himself and find the gold in his experience." -- Robert A. Johnson, "Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche."
Editor's note: The illustration is of a crucible for melting gold. Impurities rise to the surface and are burnt right off, floating away into the atmosphere. If you've never seen it in real life, it's a powerful visual.
