The universe is filled with wonderful, astonishing, amazing things…from the macro to the micro. It is filled with patterns.
We, as human beings, delight in patterns. Music is memorable and beloved because of repeated patterns. Poetry is inspiring when we discover within it wonderful repetition of rhyme or meter or connection to the pattern of own experiences. Scientists declare hypothesis to be reliable theories, even laws of nature, when they discover sure patterns.
We find security in patterns. We expect the sun to rise in the horizon each morning, casting out the darkness of the night; we expect new sprouts to push through the soil each spring, renewing life after the cold of winter. Why? Because we know we can rely on these patterns.
You and I need to pay attention to patterns. They are significant for us. Patterns can help us identify the truths necessary for us to heal.
Last Spring, I attended a lecture by Dr. Stephen Blackwood, author of The Consolation of Boethius. Dr. Blackwood shared a personal experience in which he offered a ride to a young women in need. He said she had her possessions with her in a big white garbage bag. She was upset and crying. As they drove, she told him about the multigenerational patterns of sad things in her life.
At one point, trying to lift her spirits, Dr. Blackwood asked her a question: “What do you love?”
The young woman thought about it and smiled. “I love knitting!” she said. “I lose myself in the patterns.” Out of her big bag she pulled a knitting project she was working on. It was amazing, he said, full of intricate patterns.
He told those who were listening that day his opinion: Beautiful, eternal patterns are in us…in all of us….perhaps forgotten…but they can become clear and remembered.
I believe we will experience healing as we seek for, “remember” and live by beautiful patterns.
Think of the pattern of new life, human life. Think of pictures of the developing embryo, how prominent in the beginning is the head and then the torso. (Arms and legs are small.) Some babies are born breech, but the pattern for a healthy birth is for a baby to be born head first.
Let’s follow that healthy pattern of new life as we do our best to begin our lives anew. Let’s begin at the top and work our way down. Let’s consider first our heads, then our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our necks, our shoulders, and so on, one part of ourselves at a time. Each part is an incredible creation, with a purpose. What is its purpose? Is it functioning according to its design? Is it weak or strong? Is it actively used or forgotten and failing? Is it diseased? Is it bearing more than it was meant to bear?
We will be looking for patterns inside ourselves from head to toe, and considering how our belief and behavior patterns affect our relationships, and our interactions with the world. Recognizing these patterns can help us choose what is good and true over what is harmful and false. It can help us discern what is needed, and it can help us find enduring strength and hope.
Now, it is time to start. Here’s the first thing to do: begin creating a list of Statements of Truth. We will be adding to this list throughout the year. Keep it somewhere (maybe in a new journal) where you can find it easily.
If the following make sense to you and you feel they are true, start your list with these sentences:
- I don’t have to know how to heal because I was made to heal
- My whole body has been affected by my wounds, so, my whole body needs healing.
- Many people care about those of us who suffer, and want to do something to help.
- As I ask for help and advice, as I actively seek truth, I will be able to find help and truth in many places.
- The truth will set me free.
- I am willing to seek truth.
- I am willing to try to discover those things that are amiss in myself.
- I am willing to try to work, change, and hope for the best.
- I will try to allow myself to rejoice over every triumph, without belittling my efforts.
- Beautiful, eternal patterns are in every human being; they are in me.
