Healing takes time,

outstretched, long-standing time.

It takes a willingness to put aside this culture

that would have us do everything at lightning speed

in favor of a more sustainable future.

Healing takes time,

it moves in phases, fits and starts, cycles and

rhythms unknowable until you’re dancing them,

led by them, tripped up by them,

and brought back in again by some music

you simply cannot contain or predict.

And because healing takes time,

it requires endurance--

abiding, remaining, endurance.

It requires those who are willing to endure the excavation process,

those willing to invite, host & stay present with ghosts,

ghosts that scream and cry and hope with a yearning so deep

its almost unbearable because of its impossible indictment of the present.

When the healing work turns out different than you expected:

stay, don’t give up, don’t go away, stay.

When the healing work makes you look at everything you’ve been taught differently

and everyone you’ve been taught by differently:

stay, don’t give up, don’t go away, stay.

When the healing work threatens to shatter the very core

of who you’ve known yourself to be:

stay, don’t give up, don’t go away, stay.

It takes time. It requires endurance.

Please, stay.