The POWER of TOUCH

Each day is different and full of new experiences. For example, yesterday I actually joined the medical group in hopes of doing some movement therapy with some of the leprosy afflicted. However, when we got going we found out that we needed to help take many of the patients from one of the colonies to the hospital, so we drove nearly two hours into Chennai to escort the leprosy patients. It was nice to see the city and how the public hospitals are run in a different country. When we arrived, they just dropped us off and said, good luck, which was defiantly an adventure. I spent the day helping a leprosy-affected man who was completely blind. I sat with him in the waiting room in the ophthalmology unit and then helped him get from doctor room to doctor room. When he first arrived, I helped him sit down and he mumbled something in broken Tamil. I leaned over and told him, my name is Katie. He smiled a big yellow-toothed smile and reached out to give me a big hug. He hugged me on both sides and then moved his hands across his chest in a cross like fashion. Than brought, his hands together in a prayer position and cocked his head up to the sky. With his frail hands, he took my hands and cupped them in his. He would look up to the heavens and then kiss my hands, he was blessing me, I just knew it and the spirit was strong. The first time he did this I started to tear up. Everyone in the clinic was watching us and I was glad that this man could not see the horrified and dirty looks that everyone was giving us because of his obvious case of leprosy. While waiting for the doctors I would take his stubby hands with the bones showing through the skin and rub them. Leprosy kills the nerves and so I don’t believe he could feel me doing this but somehow he knew because he would calm down and then proceed to bless me again. Although I was not “dancing” yesterday I was deeply moved by the simple power of human touch and how we ALL need to open our hearts and just LOVE.