dear future healer,
did you know
in northeast ohio,
along the roads between roller coasters and a biodynamic farm
there lies
a landfill?
and did you know
just over the hill
where the landfill peaks
and the vultures circle the hole of dead things
stuffed into the belly of the earth as if there were no limit,
did you know
that just beyond this hole of dead things
at the bottom you roll to a stop at
a farm?
a farm
whose land is bountiful.
did you know
just beyond this hill with a hole of dead things
this same body of land is patiently, annually
producing life-giving plants?
did you know
the same people whose cars idle for hours,
full of trash
who never bother to say thank you
to this generous belly
who accepts waste without complaint
did you know
these same idling people with their loads of trash
are fed by her forgiveness?
dear future healer,
whenever you doubt the power of healing
with a distant modality
using tools to attend to the mind, or the gut
when the PET scan showed
their cancer is in the bones
when you wonder
if the laying of hands to soften their shoulders,
if the needle in the crown of their head,
makes any difference at all,
do not forget that
healing a part
is part of healing the Whole.
whenever you doubt the point of trying to heal a body rotting from the inside out
may you remember this grandmother earth.
may you remember
the way she sees
each small, good deed,
each small, hopeful seed, patiently planted and lovingly watered,
each bottle recycled because someone bothered to help shoulder the load.
do not forget the way she weights the small, good deeds,
the way she forgives us for extracting her precious metals here, while stuffing her full of the carcasses of the used and abused things from last year, now wasted, over there.
do not forget the way that all the pieces of us are connected, communicating, forgiving
just the way that the belly of this earth gives and gives over and over again.
