Healing is so tender and scary and so very beautiful. Over the past two weeks, I have been reminded of these truths through a flurry of speaking engagements. 

From the mountains of North Carolina to the halls of Yale Divinity School, from teenagers to empty nesters, from neurotypical to neurodivergent, from diverse ethnic, economic, and educational backgrounds—we all need to know that we are beloved, that we do not need to be ashamed of our brokenness, and that healing is available to each of us and to all of us. 

I talked about all sorts of things in these varied places, but the drumbeat was belovedness. And during the solitude time during a retreat, one woman decided to Google tattoo parlors nearby. She came back that afternoon with “beloved” inscribed upon her forearm (picture below), a permanent, delicate, and beautiful reminder of the deepest truth of who she is. 

Whether or not it results in a tattoo, we all need to inscribe that deep truth on our hearts and minds and bodies. And we need to return to that truth, over and over and over again, in order to be made well.