The Human Touch (written in hospital)

Two AM in a darkened room, in a quiet and darkened hospital, sitting up in bed with a nurse, trying to breathe, suddenly another figure joins us and strokes my brow and temples, tells me she is glad to see me, but not like this.

That gentle, caring touch was the best medicine at the time, preventing panic, promoting relaxation. So much was conveyed in that touch. But as I think about it and savor the warm glow, I realize such touches, once so common, are now rare. We are losing something so necessary to our health and well being. It is the human condition to share love, caring, strength and healing through touch. Something very important is lost when touch happens only through the barrier of gloves and such. I suspect that touch involves the blending of auras, and perhaps even on some more esoteric level

When it becomes unsafe to touch, we are rapidly severing the connection with our own humanity. Over the past number of years, there have been so many super bugs, resistant to antibiotics, particularly in hospitals. Some have taken precautions to try and control infection by means of isolation units, hand sanitizing, gloves, masks, and control of visitors. Our local hospital did this, but I have watched it go from a small sanitizing station at the front entrance, to being so over run that there are boxes of gloves, hand sanitizers, masks and gowns at every patient room and up and down all the halls. There are so many sick people that isolation might simply involve one’s bed area being off limits to the person in the next bed.

As the traditional western healing centers become less effective, more and more people seek out those who practice t he ancient eastern arts including the human touch. Is there a solution? I don’t know. I do know that our world is changing so fast that none of us can predict the future with any level of accuracy.