I’m writing this with a busted nose, which feels like a fairly on-the-nose way (pun very much intended) to start an issue about how healing works.
We talk about healing as though it is a single moment. A diagnosis resolved, a wound closed, a problem fixed. But more often, healing is a process, one that unfolds in its own time, at its own pace, in ways that do not always look like progress while they are happening.
This issue looks at how healing works, and what it takes to actually get there.
We travel to the Hancock County Marsh, where a living shoreline is teaching us something about resilience, much like this month’s Green Living feature on rewilding our own backyards, one native plant at a time. We also sit down with space philosopher Frank White, whose conversations with astronauts return again and again to the same realization: Seen from far enough away, there are no borders, only one connected, living planet.
Jen Killgo, of Jubilee Healing Arts, shares how Signature Intuitive Medical Massage responds to the body in real time. Donna Alsop, FNP, FMP, of Root Cause Healthcare & Fitness, considers what happens when the bloodwork looks clean, but something still is not right—a question echoed in our Healing Ways section, which examines the hidden causes behind sleep apnea. Magdalena Sage, DMA, offers guidance for singers, teachers and everyday speakers on caring for one of our most overlooked instruments: the voice—a fitting companion to our Healthy Kids feature, which looks at how music shapes a growing mind. Carolyn Olson, of Thermography Advantage, brings a gentler, noninvasive option for tracking women’s health over time, paying attention to what changes and what doesn’t. Our feature on life after cancer picks up that same attentiveness, looking at survivors rebuilding trust with bodies that already fought hard.
Fairhope Health Foods marks 51 years of serving this community, a milestone that, in its own way, tells us something about healing too: Like building a legacy, healing takes time. And Earth’s Creations & Wellness and Sunflower Café both remind us that what we put into our bodies can be its own quiet form of care.
Healing is rarely loud. It asks for attention, patience and the willingness to meet things as they are, not as we wish they were.
Before I let you go, one more thing. I’m in the very early stages of planning something new for our community: an expo bringing local practitioners, businesses and residents together in one place. There’s no venue yet, no date, nothing set in stone. But some things need people involved from the start, not once every detail is decided. If you’d like to contribute, participate as a vendor or simply show up as a guest, I’d love to hear from you now while it’s still taking shape.
However healing finds you this month, whether it’s something as small as nursing a busted nose or something considerably bigger, I hope these pages offer something useful along the way.
~ Jyn Sage
