Not much happening here as first Myself then Mary had visits from a cold bug. We were both finally getting well when Princess, our thirteen year old terrier-mix, decided to jump off a neighbors twelve foot balcony. No one really knows why she jumped. I blame Dawgzheimers.
Fortunately she landed in a pile of sand and missed a wood picket fence. A $500 vet bill got us a bottle of pain medication and the assurance that no broken bones were involved, though you would not have known it by the way Princess wailed for the past week.
The crying has settled down of late though and now a limping gate is her only hindrance, that and a temperament requiring Mary's constant presence.
The past two weeks I have been caring for Spanish speaking patients and have renewed my goal of learning the language. Some argue that they have no intention of this as they feel English should be learned by immigrants.
"If I were to move to France, I would make a point of learning their language." says another nurse to me.
Yet I actually have two motivations for learning the language. First, is my intention to visit Spanish speaking countries in the future, so why not learn while I have opportunity with fellow employees and patients. The second reason is from reading that learning a new language is great mental exercise, some people consider this part of the inner journey.
Volunteers for the peace-corps and mission trips have suggested this by saying, they went out to change a small piece of the world and returned realizing it was them that had been changed.
A recent conversation with a nurse who volunteered for a mission trip to Africa shared with me that when their medical supplies ran out mothers kept bringing their children anyway.
"All I had left were my hands to lay on them in prayer" she said, "and yet they still kept coming". "I realized, I always have something to give", she concluded.
Interacting with the world you find yourself placed, transforms travel nursing into a journey. There are always new sights to see even if you don't travel, but to allow new places to change you, that's the key to inner journey.
So learning Spanish is my way of taking the smile of the lab tech with me after accomplishing a new phrase. Mary is inspiring the landlord of our home to make improvements to the wall, (click here if you have not seen pics of it) and had him and multiple neighbors involved with a project on it yesterday. Actually, I find that Mary creates inspiration of all kinds, regardless the situation.
Traveling without working on inner journey is more akin to wandering, like footprints in the sand swept away with a single tide, having cast no memory and leaving no trace of presence.
Inner journey knows no location, but opens our awareness to allow new locations to transform and broaden our own personal horizons.
Have you been contemplating travel? Is it time for you to explore?
2 comments:
Life is too short to learn every language on the face of the earth, so you have to choose. Have you ever thought of learning Esperanto?
Take a look at www.esperanto.net
I can speak some Spanish and believe me it is a tremendous help with some of my patients. I usually start by telling them that that I speak "a little" and they usually appreciate the effort I make and makes them more comfortable. I commend you for wanting to learn.
I know people of the same mindset that they should learn our language. It isn't always easy for that to happen. Spanish speakers feel just as stupid and self-conscious when learning English as I do when I speak Spanish, so it give us a commonality and humility that wasn't there before.
Post a Comment