Rebuilding

Ypres has a bit of toy town about it. After being completely flattened apart from a dozen or so buildings in WW1 it was rebuilt through the twenties onwards. It has that reclaimed look – reused bricks, fresh mortar. Old building materials but youthful building work. Perfect corners, perfect mortar, perfectly replicated. It determinedly recaptures what was, to continue to be. Even the enormous Cloth Hall and huge St James’ Church were returned to their original glory from ground level, stone by stone and with each piece of stained-glass window. Like a spider spinning a fresh web what is manifested here is the instinct to rebuild the home, the workspace and place to hang out in order to feel safe, to have the knowledge of still belonging to the community and to experience its familiarity after all those things were so violently taken away. Wandering around and looking more closely at the details reveals the stories of new beginnings. There are Art Deco doorways and window glass designs and crumbling broken walls down the alley behind a pretty façade, faded painted signage above a straight new lintel of a shop window.

Therapies are a little like this. We want to rebuild health and reclaim peace. We want to come back stronger so we can last longer. We want to create a healthy life with the readymade bricks of our bodies and minds using the new mortar of good habits and lessons learned. It takes time and effort but those instincts are part of our humanity. And our old scars and memories will tell our stories in the life we live now.