Yesterday this question came up with a couple of wonderful people on facebook and wanted to share this with the rest of you! If you would like to respond or share a personal experience with us, please do so!
Oh god. Probably when I was an acupuncture student. I would go to airports to practice taking people's pulses (before security was so restricted) because in acupuncture school you have to take 1000s of pulses (in Chinese Medicine there are 12 pulses on the wrist you measure. It is very complex. And airports are perfect as people are trapped and bored with nothing to do but sit and be still...) And so I was practicing, explaining what I was doing at like a Delta gate or something. And I took this woman's pulse, she was likely in her 50's, conservative, impeccably groomed, and had the kindest eyes. She sat next to her husband. And i felt her pulses. And she had this very rare-feeling pulse picture which is an indication that they have a life threatening condition. It's the worst pulse diagnosis you can get. But because I wasn't licensed yet, of course said nothing about that, and also, i'm not one to speak out of turn. And so I felt her pulses and looked at her with what I imagined to be a face of worry, and I asked, "Are you ok? Are you feeling alright?"
And she looked at her husband as though graciously and silently asking if it would be alright to speak personally with me without upsetting him. And then he nodded his consent of sorts. And then she looked back over at me and said, "I'm going through my second round of chemotherapy for breast cancer..." And she said it in this tired way, like maybe she had given up hope. Or like she suspected what was to come...
And we had this moment where we looked at each other, like we were both sitting in the knowledge, yes of the impermanence of life, but also in this moment of her particular mortality. And we just kept looking at one another. And I squeezed her hand, hoping I was sending out a lot of feeling --something, anything good. As being just a student, practicing in the airport, i knew there was nothing more there I could do. But I felt honored and also self-conscious at having in one single moment received this incredibly personal piece of information that her pulses told me -- only to be confirmed with her words and her face. I often think of her when I'm in airports now, wondering if she is still with us.
Megan Griswold- Lost and Found
http://www.facebook.com/griswoldmegan
http://www.youtube.com/megangriswold20
http://twitter.com/megan_griswold
No comments:
Post a Comment