Why Do I Teach Spiritual Philosophy?

Sometimes people ask me why I teach Spiritual Philosophy? I don’t think that most of us ever feel passionate about anything because of only one concept that is in our thinking mind, but I have always felt passionate about living Spiritual Philosophy. My Mother was very religious and followed the Baptist beliefs, my father was not religious, but he had an inner peace that I found fascinating and when we were alone he would tell me stories about his life in France after being wounded. As a soldier that could not be sent back to the United States in his condition with slow ships, he lived at the hospital for longer than most people did.. He was an avid reader and he taught me to read before I started school.

As a child I was born sick and remained frequently sick until I was about 17 years old. There were no antibiotics when I was young and living with rheumatic fever. In my attempt to heal myself, I pushed my self with the daily labors of farm chores and when I lived this self-imposed work ethic, I found that the more I worked the healthier I felt and the healthier I actually became. As a child I spent many Sundays with my father, talking for hours because going to Church was not my favorite thing. He told me about what he had learned in France about Spiritual Philosophy, which totally intrigued me. I never heard him tell these stories to anyone else in our family or friends.

When I chose a Nursing School to attend, I chose a Catholic school because in my reading I had learned that Catholic Schools focus on good educations. That was enough for me because I wanted a "good education." As I listened to the Mass and the School Chaplain, I began to realize that Catholic Religion had always been a good support system for higher education. I became good friends with the Priest and spent many hours talking with him, which was my first introduction to Georgetown University and its teachings in Washington, DC. As my life continued and I was nearing graduation I made arrangements to move to Washington, DC to accept a research position in tuberculosis at DC General Hospital.

My decision to go into Medical Research and into Nursing Administration was the best decision of my life, and that dual exposure has constantly guided me in my thinking and into fantastic research programs and nursing positions throughout my nursing career. I have spent many years of my life studying and living Nursing Supervision, which always gave me the opportunity to research each hospital and how it functioned. My focus on research has taught me more about myself than I could ever have learned any where else. Every job that I have had has added to the internal knowledge of myself as a human being as well as the internal workings of hospitals and health care. My intense relationship to hospitals prompted me to write my first book, The Joy of Health in 1989, which we have just reissued.

I have not as yet seen the perfect hospital because we are continuing to look at disease as "our need to be saved," instead of accepting illness as a challenge to save ourselves as we eat, drink, and breathe.