top of page

Epilogue

The (Salt-Water) Spirit of Nursing

​

I am a visitor here, a traveler from Wales

I meet other nurses following a path for planetary health

I see them holding and being held by something greater than ourselves

I see them riding waves, keeping above the swell

 

I watch from the beach, certain of my destruction

each path through the breakers seems perilous

I realize I too have something to offer,

  • Knowledge of the surf in the salt-cold waters of Ceredigion

  • Restorying the bard Taliesin and his transformations: hare-sparrow-seed

 

We are living the spirit of nursing in this ocean of nurses,

learning from mistakes in order to make new mis-takes

 

I wade out to these wave-riders, making my own great transition

the land beneath me floods with water, and I see

  • hands outstretched

  • a dolphin’s back

  • kelp forests for floating

  • a place to breathe

Help from relations,

that my imagination had erased

 

This then is the invitation to me, teacher of nurses:

Just rights and responsibilities for all of our relations,

Presence for the heartbreaks to come, 

Waveriding between dreams

 

Robin A. Evans-Agnew

Water Ripples

References

Abram, D. (1997). The spell of the sensuous: Perception and language in a more-than-human world. New York, NY: Vintage Books. 

 

Andreotti, V. (2015). Global citizenship education otherwise: pedagogical and theoretical insights. In Ali Abdi, Lynette Shultz, and Tashika Pillay (Eds.) Decolonizing global citizenship education (pp. 221-228). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

 

Andreotti, V., Stein, S. Ahenakew, C, Hunt, D. (2015). Mapping interpretations of decolonization in the context of higher education. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 4(1).https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/22168

 

Blackstock, C. (2019) Revisiting the Breath of Life Theory, The British Journal of Social Work, 49(4), 854–859. https://doi-org.libproxy.unm.edu/10.1093/bjsw/bcz047

 

Daly, H. E. (2005). Economics in a full world. Scientific American, 293(3), 100-107.

 

Faerron Guzman, C.A., & Potter, T. (Eds). (2021). Planetary health education framework. https://www.planetaryhealthalliance.org/education-framework

International Council of Nurses. (2023). ICN strategic priorities: Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.icn.ch/nursing-policy/icn-strategic-priorities/sustainable-development-goals

 

Macy, J. (2006). The work that reconnects. New Society Publishers.

 

Planetary Health Alliance. (2021). Sao Paulo declaration on planetary health. https://www.planetaryhealthalliance.org/sao-paulo-declaration

 

Planetary Health Alliance. (n.d.). What is planetary health? https://www.planetaryhealthalliance.org/planetary-health

 

Rockström, J. (2015). Bounding the planetary future: Why we need a great transition. Great Transition Initiative, 9, 1-13.

 

Sheppard, D. (2020). Getting to the Heart of Cultural Safety in Unama’ki: Considering Ksaltultulinej (love). Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse, 1(2), 51-65. https://doi.org/10.25071/2291-5796.57

 

Wheatley, M. J., & Frieze, D. (2011). Walk out walk on: A learning journey into communities daring to live the future now. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

 

World Health Organization (2023). Social Determinants of Health: Progress of the world report on social determinants of health equity. EB154/21

 

World Health Organization. (2022). Nursing and midwifery. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/nursing-and-midwifer

bottom of page