The Heartwood Problem

Send us Fan MailA tree can look solid for decades while the center quietly hollows out, and archaeology has a name for the confusion that creates: the heartwood problem. When you carbon date wood, you can end up measuring the newest layer instead of the oldest core, and the result can be wildly off. That one detail cracked my brain open, because it mirrors how we judge people, including ourselves. The outside is what everyone sees: the bark, the mask, the “I’m okay.” The inside is older, denser, and harder to reach, especially if you had to grow up too fast.I walk through the actual tree science, from bark to cambium to living wood to heartwood, and then I use it to talk about trauma, shame, and the places we refuse to revisit. Fast-growing trees are more prone to heartwood rot; people who were parentified, pressured, or pushed into adult realities early can carry a similar risk in the form of unprocessed pain. We also go straight at moral injury, including the kind veterans live with, where the hardest memories aren’t only what happened to you but what you did to survive, comply, or make it home.The way out isn’t pretending the past was fine. It’s building what I call compassionate narratives, pushing present-day understanding back into the oldest parts of your story until the rot stops spreading. I share a simple set of “tells” for real self-compassion, because intellectual insight is not the same as healing in the body: softness, slowness, breath, and tears matter. If you’ve ever felt broken, rotten, or beyond repair, this one is for you. Subscribe for more, share it with someone who needs a gentler mirror, and leave a review with the line that hit you hardest.Support the showMusic by WutaboiEmail us at [email protected] Buy me a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/owlmedicine Social MediaFacebook: www.facebook.com/owlcmedicineInstagram: www.instagram.com/owlcmedicine My Websiteswww.owlchrysalismedicine.comwww.decolonizehealthcare.comwww.rethinkingbroken.com#rethinkingbroken #CPTSD#chronicstressadapted #ComplexPTSD#childhoodtrauma #Authorpodcast #bestsellingauthor #queerauthor#adhd #dyslexia #dyscalclia #Queer #queerpodcast #queerhost#adultswithadhd #veteran #therapist #nonfictionauthor #traumaauthor#undiagnisedadhd  #childhoodtrauma #trauma #lifeaftertrauma  #PTSD