“We connect with each other through our wounds”
Rachel Naomi Remen
Right after his heart attack, Dr. Steve Parker began an impressive project as part of his healing journey. The result is a compelling series of images that the Alaska clinical psychologist created over a 40-day period of recuperation. The 40 drawings came first, and then his accompanying commentary, which then became a blog, and the blog then became a touring art exhibit called “Healing after a Heart Attack: Images of the Psyche”.
A year later, New York journalist Natalie Walsh interviewed Steve’s sister Anne Diggory about her initial reaction when finally alerted to the depth of her brother’s illness:
“She told those who had gathered at the exhibit’s opening reception that when she was first notified that Steve was having heart trouble, she felt removed from the experience:
“He was far away. I didn’t really understand what he was going through. Then I read the blog and I really understood, and I realized that I wasn’t paying attention.”
Dr. Steve explains:
“A heart attack is a deeply wounding event. I have been struggling with this never-ending wound for more than a year, and still it haunts me by the hour. A heart attack is also a deeply isolating event. Others act as if their lives will go on forever, but can I participate in this charade, knowing deeply and irrevocably that any moment could be my last one?” (more…)
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