Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Nursing Practice and the Physical Form

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Something interesting happens as you practice nursing with real people. You begin to notice bodies less for their form, and more for their functionality. The physical begins to be less important in your evaluation of the whole person, because it becomes so obvious that bodies are only vessels, in various degrees of disrepair, that hold and give animation to life's spark. But you also begin to appreciate just how important functionality is to the individual, and to see that we're all on our way to somewhere; the most physically fit among us is not very far from the most impaired. You learn to appreciate the gift of mobility and autonomy (if you have it) and you start to think a lot more about the choices you're making now, because they will affect the vehicle of the soul in the future; the unhappiness that can be brought into fruition by those choices can be startling. Eyes. You start to notice eyes a lot more. The sea of humanity runs deep, and when you think you're at the top, you're probably just skimming the surface.

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