Time heals...I have proof

I decided to write this after coming across an article that shook me to my core. It kinda reinstated in me that indeed there are some things that are beyond one's imagination.

But before we go into that, I want you to know something about pain.

As we live, we are bound to encounter situations and people that hurt us. Sometimes, they hurt us so badly that we avoid everything that reminds us of the moment of pain.

I'm sure you've heard about the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

That's where it stops, at acceptance. But acceptance doesn't necessarily mean that we are healed. It just means that we have just started the journey towards healing.

I have a friend, a good friend who I have known for a long, long time, and she was the first one who brought forth this topic. She had been hurt, betrayed and left to deal with her own scars.

That was when she said, "I don't think I can ever heal from this; it hurts too much. It feels like my heart is being squeezed, and there is not enough air to breathe."

I had given her a solemn look and tried to comfort her the best I could. Of course the first thing I had said to her was to give it sometime, to give herself some time.

Things like these take time to heal.

While the body may recover from its wounds, there are times when the phantom pain comes to haunt.

Fast forward to today, she is healed. She laughs just as she did before. I remember her thanking me for being there, and helping her through it.

Are you all wondering how I can prove that she is truly healed?

To be honest, I don't have a definite proof. But there are some things about her that I noticed as time went by.

The few weeks after the talk were tough. She had stopped talking to anyone and locked herself up in her home: no social media, no calls, no outings.

A few days later she had started to pick up my calls, she started to tell me about her day and how it was going, just mundane things.

As time went by, I saw her revert to her original self, though she trusted fewer people now. Seasons changed and years went by before she started trusting people again.

"It's still difficult for me to trust people with myself, but I am becoming better with it" she had smiled all the while fiddling on her phone scrolling through dating apps.

I had smiled and teased her while she scrolled through potential matches. I'm not sure if you would count it as such, but I certainly thought she had healed enough to even consider trusting other people.

And if there are still some people who think that time doesn't heal, I have another story to tell you.

Do you remember Chernobyl? (I know this seems out of the blue but bear with me)

Yes, yes, the same Chernobyl that is plagued by radiation from the years ago nuclear accident.

The same Chernobyl that is marked as a place where the world's worst nuclear disaster took place is healing.

It is healing due to a black fungus that is sucking up all the nuclear radiation in the area.

Scientists were left shocked, because what they were unable to do in all these years was being done by a fungus.

A natural miracle that was healing the mistakes made by humans.

Healing is a process, and like the black fungus in Chernobyl, sometimes it takes something unexpected to bring about that change.

It’s not always fast, it’s not always easy, but it does happen. Just like my friend who learned to trust again, or Chernobyl slowly coming back to life, healing can come from the most surprising places.

Believe that you can heal, and you will.