The Mapmaker's Seasons (with Viktor Frankl epigraph)

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

There is a pervasive myth that healing is a straight, blissful stride into the sunshine. This myth is not only untrue; it is unkind. The truth is that healing, like all of nature, has its seasons. There will be seasons of vibrant growth and seasons of profound stillness.

It is so helpful to know that the path will have its stops, its doubts, its dark moments, and its "what is the point?" feelings. These are not signs that you have failed. They are signs that you are in a season of rest, a deep winter for the soul, gathering the strength to thrive again.

In the past, finding ourselves in this winter landscape felt like a failure. We believed we were lost again in the same dark forest, standing at the familiar trailhead of "I'm not wanted" or "Something is wrong with me."

But the true miracle of healing is this: the landscape may be familiar, but you are not the same.

Now, when you arrive at the edge of that dark forest, there is a sacred pause. Instead of being automatically swept down the old path, you are able to stop, take a breath, and simply notice.

It is the moment you realise you are not the one lost in the woods. You are the Mapmaker, holding a map and a compass for the first time. You are the compassionate observer of your own pain, the loving witness to the parts of you that are so scared of walking that path again.

The old path may always be there, a relic of your history and your survival. But you are no longer bound to walk it. You know, with the deep wisdom of a tree that trusts the spring, that this winter is not an end. It is a sacred season of integration. And in that choice—that tiny, sacred space of awareness—lies all the freedom in the world.