Secondary Intention

There is a medical term called “healing by secondary intention” where a gaping wound that cannot be primarily closed, must heal from the bottom up and from the wound edges towards the center. I believe psychic trauma heals in this way. As a stunted 30 year old, I experienced an earth shattering implosion of betrayal and grief that left an abyss, a trench, a black hole collapsing my center and being.

This quote from a famous grieving Dutchman became a map for my healing. He said, “There is a deep hole in your being like an abyss. You will never succeed in filling that hole, because your needs are inexhaustible. You have to work around it so that gradually the abyss closes. Since the hole is so enormous and your anguish so deep, you will always be tempted to flee from it.”

This piece honors all of us who have been hollowed out. The purple cow tethered at the periphery reminds us to work from our torn edges.