“Healing the abused”
By James Anthony Curtis
This morning I watched a video that came up in my news feed of a dog that had been abused, now shown compassion for the first time. The animal was a little older than puppy age, maybe about a year or two, and as he was gently caressed cried out in pain. The strokes were unfamiliar to him, the tender hand, and as the caregiver moved with slow movements, the dog cowered in a corner, peeing itself, tail between its legs, as if it was being beaten, continuing to wail as he was touched.
After some time, the agonizing cries became whimpers, as the worker gently continued while talking softly, looking into the dog’s eyes. The dog began to settle slightly, and you could see an apparent shift in that the canine realized it was not being abused, but still felt the strokes upon its body with some revulsion, very difficult to receive.
Time-lapse showed the dog in a few weeks, still a little skittish, but now playing with other puppies, its tail still cowering but no longer hunched fearful in the corner. Another lapse showed the same dog now playing with the caregiver, running, licking, tail wagging, living liberated of much of the abuse it had previously experienced. I thought to myself, “this is very much like my own healing, and that of many others.”
While we may not come from abusive homes, or if we do, the inward neglect we learn can be just as abusive if we have deep wounds that are in need of care.
Having been through the healing process, working with past trauma, loss, grief, and abandonment, I know firsthand how foreign ‘love’ can feel, the uncomfortable touch of tenderness, which can be very painful to receive. Healing can be one of the ugliest experiences we go through, it can feel awful, tormenting even, and we will do everything in our power to cower away to some corner in fear. But as we allow gentleness, the tender hand to enter into our lives, the kind words, although they may feel uncomfortable, unbearable at times, we too will experience a shift.
The love we are willing to grant passage, will not fail us, though we will feel the pain of our past circumstances surfacing to be felt as we are loved.
We will doubt, resist, even fight in receiving the tender care, but the pain we have inside us longs to be released, healed, and the universe responds when we are ready.
In working with others, the most common space I experience as a healer is, the identifying agents that come forth disguised in outer circumstances, only to reveal themselves as love on a greater mission.
If we are brave enough to feel, while holding the heart in tender compassion, we open ourselves to the shift that aches to unfold for us.
We are the chosen who have ears to hear, eyes to see, and time to come forth. We are beautiful, blessed, children of the most high. May it be so, so it is.
(The video below may be very difficult to watch, please be advised)
Mini-recordings of events past are stored in our vessel down to the cellular level; desires that we may or may not be aware of begin to surface when we are ready to receive the light of love upon them in their revealing. We gain perspective by loving the heart through all that we feel, allowing ourselves the space to explore and come to know previously darkened parts of the self.