Three Meetings with Chiron
| Meeting One The boy bolted out the door grasping his spear tightly. “Where are you going?” yelled his mother, just as the screen door slammed shut behind him. He was a wild child… always getting into fights… always the dare devil… doing whatever he wanted. She worried about him. He raced across the field and she lost sight of him as he disappeared into the woods. On the other side of the woods was a big clearing where his teacher, Chiron, was waiting for him. Chiron was the only one the boy would listen to. That’s because Chiron promised to teach him how to throw his spear and shoot an arrow with precision. But the first things the boy needed to learn were discipline and respect. He needed to learn how to channel his anger and think before taking action. Chiron, the wise healer, was also aware that the boy carried a profound emotional pain that was calling out for healing. The boy had never known his father because he left when the boy was only three months old. His mother showered him with love and indulged his every wish, trying to fill the hole gouged out by his father’s absence. But no amount of mother-love could soothe his abandonment wound. It festered deep in his heart, so deep that he couldn’t see that the loss of the father-he-never-knew was the driving force hidden beneath his rage. All he knew was that he was pissed and just about everyone looked like a good target. Meeting Two The girl came home in tears but wouldn’t tell her mother what happened. The mean girls at school had been teasing her again. She didn’t fit in because she didn’t wear the right clothes, didn’t have a smartphone, and was more interested in bugs and trees than the birds and the bees. She quickly grabbed an apple and went running back out the door, tears still running down her cheeks. She ran toward the woods to find refuge in nature. The trees always accepted her no matter what. They were good listeners and she felt safe to share all of her secrets with them because they would never tell anyone. They knew how she struggled to make friends and they knew the darkest secret of all… that when she was five years old she’d been molested by her uncle. She couldn’t tell her mother. She felt dirty and like it was her own fault, even though it wasn’t. As the girl hugged her steadfast friend, a giant Ponderosa Pine, she soothed herself with the sweet butterscotch scent of its bark. Suddenly she heard the sound of hooves crunching on dried leaves and she quickly ducked behind the tree’s broad trunk. Peeking out, she saw a strange creature coming slowly toward her. It was half man and half horse. She didn’t know that this was Chiron the Healer, but she could sense a gentle loving vibration radiating from his heart and he had a kind look in his eyes. This chance meeting in the forest was the beginning of a tender relationship between Chiron and the girl. Not only was he a good listener, like the trees, but he also knew exactly what she needed to hear… that it wasn’t her fault, that there was nothing wrong with her, that she was not meant to fit in, that she was meant to be unique and had special gifts, like the ability to talk to the trees and befriend the bugs. Meeting Three While her husband lay passed out on the couch, the woman slipped quietly out the door and headed for the car. Her heart was pounding and her hands shook as she turned the key in the ignition. Driving away she could see her house recede in the rearview mirror. She would never go back, but she wasn’t sure where she was going. She had given so much of herself away in her marriage that she didn’t even know who she was anymore. She had stopped speaking her truth years ago. It was safer to zip her lip than get smacked in the face. She had stopped listening to her favorite music because her husband hated it. Her passion had been ignored for so long that she’d forgotten the things that used to give her joy. Her anger was so deeply buried that she didn’t even feel it, except when she’d get mad at herself for saying something stupid. As she drove down a street that she’d driven down a million times before, a cozy-looking house caught her attention. In the front yard stood a sign: Chiron Healing Arts… Counseling, Body Work & Acupuncture. The woman pulled over and wrote down the phone number. Two weeks later, she was sitting in the counselor’s office, telling her story and making a bold step toward reclaiming her power and rediscovering herself. |