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Cherishing The Wound
Cherishing The Wound
Cherishing The Wound
Ebook103 pages40 minutes

Cherishing The Wound

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About this ebook

Susan Groves exquisitely describes how we might approach the wound - our own and that of our culture/society. Let this book be part of your healing process.

“Maybe when we’re closest to the wound, we’re also the closest to beauty. Perhaps the wound is the gift.”

“Reading Cherishing the Wound felt like a meditation.”
Zubeida Jaffer, journalist and author of Love in a Time of Treason.

About the author
Susan Groves has trained in social work, theology and Core Process Psychotherapy. She lives in Cape Town, South Africa where she writes and runs a practice.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherSusan Groves
Release dateJul 14, 2016
ISBN9780620699976
Cherishing The Wound

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    Book preview

    Cherishing The Wound - Susan Groves

    Dedication

    With love for my tribe – the white tribe.

    What remains?

    the white psyche

    the song

    Table of Contents

    Dedication

    What remains?

    Starting out

    Daring to honour the wound

    The white psyche

    Naming the wound

    A prayer for the child

    Settling

    The Great War and Granddad

    Has the war ended?

    War casualties

    Approaching the wound

    Safe

    Sentences

    The presence of birds

    Taking refuge

    Connecting with nature

    Resourcing

    The space around the wound

    Healing comes

    The wider field

    Enjoying

    Creativity and psychotherapy

    The frame

    Africa and the wound

    Today

    What do we do with badness?

    An assumption of dominance

    There’s something huge Africa wants to teach us

    Sensual

    Body

    Waking

    In peace

    Genocide

    Relief

    Pacing

    Watcher of the south

    Words for Siyabulela Qoto

    The natural world

    Honouring the daily movement of the earth

    My creed

    Does nature lure us back to her?

    Reality

    Keep it natural

    Spiritual practice

    Morning prayer?

    Prescription

    Empty mind

    Breaking bread: the Christian tradition

    Living

    Neighbourhood watch

    Africa south

    Equal

    Living in South Africa today 98

    An echo 100

    Conclusion: how then might we proceed? 103

    Wholeness 105

    Don’t be ashamed of the wound 106

    Live close to the wound 107

    Protect the vulnerability of the wound 108

    Judge not 109

    Start where you are 110

    Cleaning the wound 111

    Knowing the wound 112

    Hanging out with joy 113

    Play fair 115

    Meditation? 116

    Loved 117

    Last word 120

    Closing song: A prayer to the earth 121

    Endnotes 123

    Starting out

    Daring to honour the wound

    I was in conversation with F, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer about eight months previously and was willing to share some of the challenges of this experience in a small public group. D was present. In the course of the group dialogue, I realised that D’s husband had died exactly a month before. (I had known he was seriously ill.) D and I chatted briefly after the event over tea.

    ‘He had this wound in his neck.’ [She indicated the area at the front base of the neck – in that hollow.] ‘It was awful. I was so scared of this wound. Then it was suggested to me that I treat the wound daily. The thought horrified me. But I was taught how to do this and it began to be a sacramental experience. I came to love to dress the wound. And in his final stay in hospital, he said to the staff: Don’t worry, my wife will dress the wound.’

    Despite her loss, she looked whole and well.

    The wound. We speak so easily of ‘being wounded’ but do we ever think of the actual wound? I hadn’t. The last thing we really want is to go near it. How delicate, what a mess, how hard to negotiate it is. We need help in going there at all.

    Maybe when we’re closest to the wound, we’re also the closest to beauty.

    Perhaps the wound is the gift.

    The white psyche

    Has the white psyche been explored? Perhaps in novels and fiction.

    I have an ambivalent relationship with ‘the white tribe’. But – at least in part – it’s where I belong and so I seek to understand.

    Naming the wound

    Song

    A prayer for the child

    A prayer for the child

    A prayer for the

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