06 Health

Are You Creating a Masterpiece?

Life is a huge canvas onto which we can throw as much paint as we wish. A divine gift is the power to create whatever we want. It’s woven into the fabric of our being. Since we’re hardwired to create, we hold the brush with which to design the life we choose. Are you creating [...]

A Code to Live By

When you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror are you happy with the person who greets you? If you look yourself directly in the eye do you quickly look away? Before we put on our face and plunge into the day, what we see is who we are. Raw and exposed, [...]

To Be Appreciated

To Be Appreciated

Deeply ingrained in human nature is the intense yearning to be appreciated. As Mother Teresa said, “There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.” To be appreciated feels like our birthright, which is probably why we have high expectations. Feeling unappreciated tops the list of universal human complaints. We’ve [...]

Get Out of the Way!

When we cease to stumble all over ourselves, the path we trod in life becomes far less bumpy and boulders become pebbles! When something or someone treads on our path we stumble all over ourselves to get between them and us. Like a peacock we puff up, fan out our feathers and prance about. Armed [...]

Masquerade

What a grand masquerade takes place on the great world stage! As Shakespeare pointed out we’re all mere players with entrances and exits. The masks we’ve chosen reflect the parts we play. With any luck we’ve also selected the parts—otherwise, they were probably hand-me-downs. Our mask has become the thing we always carry around with [...]

Retrograde

We position our thoughts around three points—the past, the future and the present, which is tightly squeezed in between. A quirk of ours is to orbit around the past. Living in the past, we rehash, recreate and regret. Although the past makes us sad or even mad, it’s often preferable to the future, which usually [...]

One Heart

We were given two hands to hold, two legs to walk, two eyes to see—but why only one heart, some ask? Romantics like to believe it’s because the second heart was given to someone else for us to find. This creates warm, fuzzy feelings of optimism. The search for the “other” is fueled by Hollywood, [...]

Cervical Cancer: A killer in the developing world

by Sue Patterson and Laurel White Last May, Emma, a 35-year-old mother of nine, passed away from cervical cancer, now considered a sexually-transmitted disease. Her premature death was a terrible and preventable tragedy. After hearing a radio announcement about a WINGS-sponsored screening in Chimaltenango, she came for her first such screening two years ago, but [...]

A Journey to Inner Space

Space isn’t a concept our minds can easily wrap itself around. It’s not tangible, nor can it be perceived by any of the senses. The ego, which thrives on control, is gripped by fear at the notion of boundless regions of the infinite! This empty space—what is it? Space is to growth what air is [...]

Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound

The word “home” is strong, magical and filled with the power to invoke deep sensations. It’s an English word which is virtually impossible to translate into other tongues. No translation catches the associations, the mixture of memory and longing, the sense of security and the freedom from wariness that cling to the word. There’s no [...]

Become the Master

Become the Master

Most of us would take great offense if someone were to suggest that we’re not the master of our life. Reality can be harsh. If we look it squarely in the face, we’d probably see that we’re far from being the master! Who is the master then? It should come as no surprise that it’s [...]

Moving On

Moving On

Movement is intrinsic to the cosmos. Every point in the entire universe is in motion. The Earth and planets continually revolve around each other, and the galaxy’s stars are constantly circling its center. We can see the rhythm of movement everywhere. Seasons pass into each other, seedlings sprout through soil, days turn into nights and [...]

Health Care in Colonial Guatemala

Health Care in Colonial Guatemala

Part III: University of San Carlos Medical School By the end of the 17th century, six hospitals had been founded in Guatemala. But, lacking scientific information and methods, hospitals provided little more than refuge or asylum. Sickness and cultural attitudes toward it were a social problem. In addition, the times were characterized by conflict between [...]

Pearls and a View of the Moon

As children we stuck fingers in our ears whenever our mothers and grannies expounded on the virtues of disappointments in life—dark clouds lined with silver … doors closing and opening … light a candle instead of complaining about the darkness. Even as adults we turn a deaf ear to such platitudes. When life doesn’t deal [...]

Healthcare in Colonial Guatemala

Healthcare in Colonial Guatemala

The latest medical advances in Spain were slow to reach Guatemala which saw its first autopsy in 1622. Hospitals were simple asylums for the sick, consoled by religion.