As the Nurse Fills Out the Intake Form, the Ocean Speaks Your Name,

I find it challenging nowadays to be in situations that expect black-and-white, either-or scenarios. Nothing like a combination of choices to solve complex problems. I for one never imagined that I would meet people who think of identity as a singular thing. One linear story—I am this or that, period. I belong to this party or that. Nothing fluid or in-between. It makes me sad sometimes. How could we ever bridge our di erences if we’re so polarized—too one-way?

I don’t mean to suggest that the world I grew up in was perfect, but I think it was perfectly imperfect and wholesomely human. There were several ways to approach a problem. A lot has changed—Christianity has taken on an element of fundamentalism, and our former spiritual healers, if they still exist, are in hiding and demonized. Others openly practice terrible, dark things, because promoting well-being is not their intention.

Recounting these reflections has made me realize one basic quality that the medicine folk of my childhood shared: all were very grounded individuals. They did not have their heads in the clouds, and everything they did was in the service of a better life on earth. It is sometimes assumed that people who are engaged in metaphysical or mystic experiences are not practical— that they are airy or “cuckoo”. But these folks’ grasp of reality was so strong that they never lost sight of it, whether their work was for their gain or for others.

What they gave came back to them.

I wonder in our modern lives, if we lose contact with profound mystery, won’t our creativity and imagination diminish years down the road? It is true that our physical world has its own bewilderment and rituals, yet I fear that too much emphasis is currently put on what we can tangibly prove, touch, and feel, while we neglect the spirit that inspires action, awakens our curiosity and trust. For what we seek in evolved beings is also what we seek in others and in ourselves—connection, communion, divinity, spontaneity, knowledge, love, harmony, peace, wellness—all the good that’s inexhaustible and ensures our sustainability as human beings.

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