Trees can only offer shade and protection if they have enough resources to support their own growth.
Therapists, teachers, healers, helpers, protectors, and change-makers - we are human, too.
Just because we are intricately familiar with the suffering of the earth and other living beings doesn’t mean we’ve magically found a way to rise above it all. Just because we’ve studied the many possible ways to cope and heal doesn’t mean that they will always be available to us when we need them. No matter how much we practice staying attuned and connected, we too will experience days where we can’t stop questioning ourselves and the choices we made, obsessing over whether or not they were the “right” ones. But, no matter what, we show up for the work and causes we care about, and we get to witness similar growth and struggles in our co-workers and clients.
When we care a lot, there will be times when we feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders, and we genuinely wonder how much longer we can hold it all.
In our line of work it is imperative that we remember and accept our humanity. It is because of this that we have the capacity to care, and connect, AND we each have our own limits around how much we can hold and how far we can reach. That is okay. At the end of the day, taking time to come up for air and tend to the things that fuel us is necessary if we are to get up the next day to keep caring and connecting, fully.
So as the new year begins, what is one thing you can do that fuels you, and reminds you of your own humanity?
