"I See You" and the ICU - Healing and Healthcare Dollars

Recently a man at the post office said, "Thank you" as I held the door for him.  His eye contact and tone beneath these two simple words conveyed a level of acknowledgement not experienced through social media.  A dozen exclamation points after "Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" in a text or tweet do not for me carry the same energy as one's voice.

Similarly each Wednesday morning the trash collector honks his horn at the two year old next door.  James and his mother in turn exuberantly wave from their spot on the front steps.  This weekly ritual has continued for over a year.  It too carries the energy of acknowledgment.   And HONK on screen isn't the same as the sound of the garbage truck horn echoing around the neighborhood. 

These two encounters reflect a level of acknowledgment and appreciation related to deeply seeing and being seen.  These actions convey, "I see you." 

Yet our world today is one vast ICU, an intensive care unit with people in need, in pain, lost, lonely, isolated and forgotten.

Imagine the healthcare dollars saved and the problems related to violence, isolation, anxiety and depression relieved if we lived with intensive care and authentically embodied "I see you."

The Shift to actions and the sounds of living from a place of "I see you" would usher in healing in the world's ICU.

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 19 June 2013

dawn@imaginetheshift.com