What is a healing journey?

What is a healing journey? As I pondered this question it occurred to me that one might just as well ask what is life. After all, our culture is such that a huge amount of resources, time, and energy are spent on healing activities, or at least on the avoidance of the discomfort of symptoms of being 'not well.' But the healing journey I am talking about, and inviting you to join me on, is not the same as getting over or avoiding illness, recovering from trauma, or mending wounds of body, mind, heart, and thought. 

A healing journey, for my purposes, always ends at the same place, the place where life as we understand it ceases with the death of the physical body. This is the place where, as far as we can tell, our ability to consciously influence the circumstances of our existence ceases, where the body stops functioning and decays back into the baser elements from which it was constructed. The irrecovable cessation of  consciousness on the level of human thought for a single individual, combined with the onset of  irretrievable dissolution of the physical body, marks the transition between one form of existence and another. Not one of the hundred billion or so of those who preceded us really know what that existence is like. Despite the popularity of religious works that offer 'first-hand accounts of my trip to heaven' all fail to convince except on the level of faith. An honest, rational person of average intelligence and education would, if pressed, be most accurate in answering the question "What happens to us after we die?" with "I don't know."

That admission carries a lot of weight. At the same time, it is central to prioritizing one's life. Given that for most, if not all, human history, the seeking and giving of answers to the question of life after death fills a central place in every culture known to our scientist and non-scientist co-inhabitants of this teeming realm of the living, the idea that it will all end and what comes after ranges from nothing to unimaginable glory or endless horror rightfully occupies a significant place in a brain evolved for survival.

We travel from birth to death in a too brief span, many might say, of light, learning, and sensation. Despite the terrible circumstances inflicted on millions during that time period, very few look forward to its end. Those who rush toward it, through acts of self-destruction ranging from substance abuse to violent acts of terror, fall into a variety of negative categories when observed by most of us. When you speak of us collectively, we tend to all have similar wants, needs, desires, and despite what this election year might suggest, opinions.  We all want first and foremost what is best for us.

As I look at some of the more general statements contained in the preceding paragraphs, I reach one unmistakable conclusion: For every declarative and affirming statement I made, there are millions who will disagree with me. A reasonable second conclusion is that none would entirely agree with me. And that suggests the definition I am looking for. A healing journey is an individual's experience of moving through the world in pursuit of what is best for he/she, qualified by that seeking being a conscious, intentional, structured process. It's knowing what we seek and going after it using all of the powers of our living body and mind. It is harnessing the energies of life for as long as we can to both make the most of here and now and to ready us for the inevitable step across the threshold at the far end of the bridge of light between our two eternities -- the one before birth and the one after death. It is different for each and every person.

Conscious, intentional, pursuit of what is best for each of us -- that phrase carries a lot of weight too. More than this post can sustain. I'll be back soon to continue the discussion.