A lesson in healing

As I re-learn how to walk after my hip replacement, I am reminded of the story of the bear and the circus master…..

There was once a circus master who travelled the countryside putting on amazing displays with acrobats and exotic animals. Among these was a bear that had been captured in the wild as a young adult. His ferocious energy meant he was kept in a cage only big enough to walk 2 metres forwards, 2 metres back, and 2 metres either side. For many years, people would come from far and wide to see the wonderful caged beast.

Time passed and the bear became a fully grown adult, and the circus master an old man. Eventually he was too old to run his circus, so he decided to release his animals. He took the bear in its cage back to the forest where he'd captured him. By now much of the forest had gone, but enough was left.

In his heart the bear remembered this land as his home, he remembered he'd been captured, and he wondered about the bears that had suffered as the forest was cut down. He felt for the first time a gratitude at being alive. He longed to be free.

But when the cage was removed, what did he do? He stepped two metres forward, and stopped.

For many, healing journeys need to start in the ground of reality, with an acknowledgment of what is. Then there's work to be done to separate the baby from the bathwater - what is the good in the situation, what strengthens?; and what is unhelpful and needs to be loosened, let go of or returned to its right place? This may well require looking back to the past.

And then comes what is often the greater challenge: what do we do with the new space created? Do we dare take steps previously unavailable or unbearable to take?

Here we need resources, strategies, new skills and fresh habits, and above all courage - courage to step into the forest without fearing the dark, to walk free without fearing the whip, to trust that the cage bars have gone, to face fully into the future.

And here the future anchor is important: which future self invites us forward? Who are the future beneficiaries of our freedom? What awaits our arrival?

After all, if we imagine our bear spying a potential mate among the trees, we easily believe the story has a different ending.....