Vanessa Chakour

“Our bodies are living ecosystems, and like the cycles of nature, we also ebb and flow, go backward and forward, contract and expand, and move through necessary phases of growth, death, and restoration. Contrary to what we might want to believe, healing is not a linear process but an ongoing spiral into subterranean spaces of darkness where we confront the unknown. Where we rest, regenerate, and eventually expand outward into bloom. We might resist the dark spaces inside us but the truth is, most of our healing and growth happens underground and under our skin. We need dark, protected spaces to let the most tender parts of ourselves form. Rest and retreat are just as necessary as the warmth and illumination of light.”
― Vanessa Chakour, Awakening Artemis: Deepening Intimacy with the Living Earth and Reclaiming Our Wild Nature

“Just as plants grow in spirals — following
Earth’s rotation, reaching toward the light of the sun, resting in the dark of the night, ebbing and
flowing with the pull of the moon — we
heal that way too. When we go inward
to uncover the root cause of a mental, physical, or emotional challenge and release it, we create space within us and expand outward. Eventually, we grow stronger and are ready to dive inward again. . . deeper this time, to expand
further. This journey of depth and expansion goes on and on. Along the way, we might have to revisit pain we thought we’dovercome, only to find there’s another layer of that same trauma yet to be lifted. Raw all over again, we must
tend to our wounds and listen to what they have to teach us.”
― Vanessa Chakour, Awakening Artemis: Deepening Intimacy with the Living Earth and Reclaiming Our Wild Nature