Resonation with a theory about the same.

Reading Margaret Newman's theory now about Health as Expanding Consciousness…

She talks about how time disappears sometimes.  There are some moments in which exchange happens so deeply between people that time isn't really linear or even important. It's like when you've been with someone for two hours, but it your interaction was so deep that you feel like you've known each other for all of life, and that you'll never stop knowing one another. She calls that expanding consciousness.

This is a common occurrence for me. Even before nursing. And it's part of why I chose this field. I recognized that I could have deep relationships with people in a short amount of time. What field could be better except a field where people are coming to me by the droves?

She calls it "resonance", this exchange of information between two people. She also says that as a nurse, when you walk into a room, you start with the simplest, most obvious thing. And you pursue it. And you assume it's important. You start with that thing, that little thing. But you're after the whole of the person.

I really operate this way.  With other theorists, I kind of inwardly roll my eyes and say, "Yeah, I guess I operate that way." But with her, it's like, "No. Really. I really operate this way." I am always after the whole of a person. And every piece is a window into the whole. It's like a little clue. And these little clues can be so very overwhelmingly informative.

My mom was asking me about a little girl at Awana's. It's strange, the times when you start teaching your mom something. She's been the most influential teacher in my life. And she's asking me for my opinion on something. But this little girl. I just wanted to have some interaction with her, to see her whole. I couldn't see it from my mom's descriptions. I couldn't tell what she was after. I think, deep down, she just wants my mom's love. She wants to resonate with my mom. She wants to cause a little trouble so she can have her. I told my mom, "So what if she wants your attention? Give it to her." Well, there are problems with time and space, then. Because she should be available to all the children, not just one. And what if it recurs? And there are so many questions and obstacles regarding time and space.

But she's after my mom's whole. I tried to encourage my mom to be after her whole too. But I didn't have words for it then. I hope it worked out. I hope they had some moments. And I hope love happened.

"Ultimate consciousness has been equated with love, which embraces all experience equally and unconditionally: pain as well as pleasure, failure as well as success, ugliness as well as beauty, disease as well as nondisease."

-Margaret A. Newman