healing into softness

i did a double take.

it was said it so fast, so matter of fact, and the conversation just kept going.
well, until i stopped it and backed it up.

it was about being healed.

or....at least, well into the journey of healing.
realizing that the world 'healed' is kinda a loaded thing -
are you ever really healed? but you get the idea.

and how you couldn't be hard if you were well into the journey of healing.
how healed is soft.

as i type that i think it must sound obvious.
you see someone hardened, toughened....well, their heart's pretty closed up
and they're protecting themselves. not open. not trusting. not healed.

makes sense.

i guess it was the way it was just whoosed out there in a paragraph.
there was more -

something about you have to get strong, then you heal, then you get soft.
it was a little different than that...'hard' was in there.
but i can't remember where it goes in the string of things. it must be
the first thing in the list -

you get hard, then you get strong, they you heal, then you get soft.
something like that.

if you're lucky.

you gotta get strong to heal.

or....maybe you gain your strength as you go along.
maybe both.
i'm pretty sure that's how it went for me.

you do have to gather up some strength to go try to find healing.
but as it was pointed out in the conversation - strength and hard are two different things.

(that's important)

so why did this truly stop me in my tracks?

i think because it was so beautifully simple.
and so easy to turn back onto myself and work with.

where am i hardened?
pretty fast way to see where we need some healing huh?
just ask ourselves that -
where the heck am i hardened?
and go from there.

that is......if you want to be soft.
and if you want that open heart.

which all brings me back to my favorite bone sigh -

'strength likes in the opening of the heart.'