Heroes Not Zombies

I’ve just started reading Sebastian Faulks’ Human Traces. On page 21 this sentence struck me

Do we already possess all we need to stop feeling the world as the sound of footsteps and the ache of our backs and to look up – to the woods and the hills and the oceans that stretch out in their immensity, just waiting to be seen?

I’m in the habit of drawing simple little diagrams to explain things to patients. I draw one which is just a circle. I say “This circle represents your life”. Then I draw a much, much smaller circle inside the first one and I say “When we have chronic pain, or sadness, or breathlessness, or stiffness, or whatever, our life becomes much smaller. Maybe we can’t go out so much. Maybe we can’t face other people. Maybe everything loses its joy. It’s necessary to do this to survive sometimes. We all need to feel safe before we can grow. If the treatment I’m going to give you works it’ll reduce your symptoms and stimlate your body’s natural healing processes and so let you begin to look up and start to see that you can move outside of this constricted, safe zone, and as you do, your world will start to get bigger and more enjoyable again. Then we’ll know you are getting well.”

We don’t grow with our heads down. We grow when we look “to the woods and the hills and the oceans that stretch out in their immensity”

These are the hills I see from my bedroom window