She was known as the healer. No other name, no other title, simply as the healer. As you might imagine, it was her job to go to those who were aching, those who were in pain and help them to heal. She would walk, nearly invisible, amongst every group of people from every walk of life suffering under every type of difficulty. She would reach out to these people in their darkest hour and help them learn how to heal. Sometimes she would listen, sometimes she would talk. It didn’t really matter what she did to help only that she eased their pain. And because of that, she was completely invisible. Her job was one of immense importance, but very little recognition. A burden lifted, a smile stretched across her face, and she knew her job was done. She would slip out the backdoor, her cloak softly swirling around her frail body and onto the next soul.
And then came the day when the healer needed help.
It was inevitable; and to anyone except those she healed it would have come as no surprise, but they were far too caught up in their woes to notice her frail body becoming frailer and frailer and her spindly back pushing down further and further under the weight of their problems. She was strong, but nobody can be that strong. She lay on her back, unable to move under the weight of every problem in the community.
At first the people in the community hardly even noticed. “It's no big deal” they would whisper to themselves. “Its just a phase, she'll snap back any moment.” But that did not happen. Day after day, the healer would lay on her back, still unable to move. The townspeople waited patiently, and then angrily. “What is she doing? I don't have time for this. Why doesn't she just snap out of it? It can't be that difficult.” They muttered to themselves, thinking about all of the pain and all of the problems they had to deal with. And now they had to do it alone. “Why doesn't she just get up?” As they thought, they would then sink deeper and deeper into their own problems. Angrier and angrier, more and more desperate.
Everyone that is, except one small girl. She wasn’t much, but she knew about bad days. She still wasn’t much, but she also knew about good days- very good days in fact. She had watched the healer grow wearier and wearier with her burden, but being just a little girl, she didn’t know what to do. As she watched the healer disappear, however, she suddenly had an idea.
One summer morning this little girl went up to the hills. She looked around in the grass and found the prettiest flower she could find. Just like the little girl, it wasn’t much, but it was the brilliant color of sunshine. The girl picked it up, ran towards the village and right to the Healer’s humble home. “Grandma Healer?” She whispered timidly, “Grandma Healer, I brought you something.” She walked in the door, to the old woman’s bed and dropped the flower on the night stand. “Here. I hope you like it.” And with those words, she turned and darted out of the room.
Every morning the girl did the exact same thing. She would go to the hills to find a flower. Sometimes it was the blue of the morning sky, other times the pink of her lips, other times the purple of the mountains, but it was always the best flower on the hillside. As she dropped it off at “Grandma Healer’s,” she would place it on the nightstand and dart out of the room. Once as she turned the corner, she even thought she saw the ghost of a smile on Grandma Healer’s mouth.
After about a month, the girl did something she had never done before. It was such a beautiful day, and the little girl felt like she had swallowed the sunshine. She simply couldn’t keep it inside of her. And on this particular trip, she reached out and hugged the healer. As she hugged the Healer, it was almost as if the warmth of the girl’s soul reached out and touched a small corner of the old woman’s soul. It reached out and reawakened something that had not been felt for a long time. And slowly, the woman found the energy to reach beyond the crushing weight that had engulfed her and she reached her arms around the child into a hug.
It wasn’t much, but it was progress. The old woman continued to heal as every day the little girl brought her a flower and a hug. Slowly the flowers were put into a small vase on the nightstand and the woman began to sit up. Then she began to stand with the girl's help. Late in the evening, the towns people would often see the little old woman wrapped in a blanket, leaning on a little girl and staring off into the hills. As time went on, the townspeople learned to deal with their own problems. They struggled on, occasionally reaching out to help others with their troubles, but no one quite sought the same vision as the healer. The little girl and the healer continued their friendship, although it might be said that this little girl became the healer for this woman. And ias the child loved and the community forgot, slowly, ever so slowly, the old woman learned how to love again.
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