It is time

If we look at the history of humanity, we can see how we have developed our creativity and ingenuity in quite remarkable ways. We can also see how violence, in different forms, has been present throughout that journey.

Within our collective history there are chapters so overwhelming that, as a species, we have had to turn away from them to keep going.

In trauma language, this is an intelligent response to the circumstances: when something exceeds our capacity to process it, we create distance until we are ready enough to meet it.

There is nothing wrong with this. It is part of how life protects itself.

These unhealed chapters of our history have become part of the foundations of the systems and cultures we live in today, alongside all the resilience, wisdom and learning we have also developed through time.

The capacity to turn away from overwhelming circumstances gives us time to build the ability to heal and integrate the experience.

It gives us time; it does not exempt us from going through the integration process.

The crises we see unfolding in our world today can be understood as symptoms of these unhealed parts of our shared history.

They point to layers of collective trauma that are waiting for the right conditions to heal.

They call forth a different way to be together and relate to our past.

They invite us to slow down and create space for our natural ability to care for each other and to feel our shared humanity to come forward.

They are reminding us that it is time - that we are ready enough to come together, tend to what has been left behind and heal.