Sometimes art communicates in ways that reach the soul when other forms of communication fall short. Where the healing begins comes from the title of a painting by Steve Hanks (1949-2015) that hangs in my living room. It depicts a pensive woman sitting on a porch chair looking into the distance over the ocean. Although the artist offers only a glimpse of her profile, she emanates a deep sense of inner reflection, as if trying to make sense of something tragic.

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According to the artist, the model's back story is that she lost her child.1 He captured her grief and something deeper...a personal search for meaning and recovery. That piece of art has called to me several times over the years when I dealt with profound loss and tragedy, whether personally or in situations that I carried home psychologically from my trauma and emergency care work.

I took another hard look at that painting when a meeting organizer from the American Academy of Nursing sent an invite asking attendees to select art as their virtual background for discussion. The choice was easy. When my turn came, I related that to me, this painting illustrates the struggle that nurses and so many others in healthcare are experiencing as they attempt to come to grips with what their world has become. It also represents the healing that they, and all of society, desperately need on multiple levels in these devastating times. Deep reflection is essential to the healing journey that helps make us whole again.

I learned the value of deep reflection several years ago when both of my parents died after a car crash. I wondered how I would ever heal from the overwhelming grief and could not figure out what to do with the feelings that consumed me. Although I continued working, I wanted to escape-but to what, I did not know. Over the space of several months, with the love of family, friends, and coworkers, as well as vital time alone, I found my answer...now I knew what being immediate family of a trauma patient felt like. That perspective was not one I ever sought, but one I could draw on to be a better nurse.

May each of you find the strength you need to heal.

Be safe and well,

LINDA LASKOWSKI-JONES, MS, APRN, ACNS-BC, CEN, NEA-BC, FAWM, FAAN

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, NURSING2021

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