“...to be courageous enough to love in a way that only creates freedom.”
The moment I read the dedication in Dr.Michele Harper’s memoir I knew I wouldn’t be able to put it down.
What does it mean to love in a way that only creates freedom?
Her stories of healing, of her patients and herself, unveil that it means to love unconditionally. In The Beauty in Breaking, she illuminates the path to get there.
Our conversation begins with the two awakenings that seeded her mission to become an ER physician — A night waiting for her brother in the ER and a divine voice she heard as a child. She writes of arriving home that night…
“I figured that if I could find stillness in this chaos, if I could find love beyond this violence, if I could heal these layers of wounds, then I would be the doctor in my own emergency room. That would be my offering to the world, to myself. Unlike in the war zone that was my childhood, I would be in control of that space, providing relief or at least a reprieve to those who called out for help. I would see to it that there was shelter in the spaces of which I was the guardian. The formless angel with a voice as clear as my own had told me the secret many years ago. Let it be so.”
“What I realized in that moment is that we’re all facing something. We’re all looking for healing,” she says. “It was a breakthrough moment for me realizing that I wasn’t alone in my pain…in my striving for healing and better. I realized, for the very first time, that it was possible. It was possible to heal.”
Dr. Harper suggests that if we expand our definition of healing, we’ll experience more of it. We may take the first step on our individual paths. But, it isn't a solo job. When I asked her how society’s commitment to healing would change if we grasped that “the trauma of every person is also our’s” her response was simple: “It would change everything.”
As you read this, it’s likely that Dr.Harper is in the trenches of the ER or advocating for medical equity as Medical Advisor at Betr Remedies. Still, it’s her compassion that makes her a true healer. The theme that stayed with me most from her book is that every time she walked back into the ER, after her clinical work was done, and asked a patient: What happened to you? It was the genesis of healing. This is a gift we can all give each other.
This week, let’s reflect on her invitation from The Beauty in Breaking: “This was the time to live my love now. No better time.”
What is one act of compassion, for yourself or a loved one, that you can practice today? How might embodying your love now unlock the freedom you’re seeking?
With gratitude,
Jenna