I met Sonia at NY Methodist Hospital this past week during one of my meditation sessions in the Physical Rehab Unit. She is from Croatia and is now caring for her elderly mother. Her journey as a child refugee out of Croatia ultimately landed her in Park Slope Brooklyn, where she has lived ever since. That evening we took a traveling meditation in which we focused on a specific place as a point of concentration. Sonia emerged from the meditation with teary eyes and a peaceful heart. Though she has been in Brooklyn for so long, she misses her Croatia even now. Its beauty, its history, its people. “If you go through this life and never see Croatia, you are missing out,” she said. With that kind of endorsement, I dutifully added it to my list for future vacations.
We also got to talking about my work at the hospital. I told her about the transition I’m hoping to make, and surprised myself when I freely said, “I wish I could be doing the work I do here every day.” For some reason that statement made me both sad and glad. Glad that I had that kind of clarity, and sad that it is not yet my reality. Maybe Sonia sensed that wistfulness in me, because she offered up the simple quote at the top of this post. I may have offered her a meditation that night that allowed her to go home for a few moments, but she gave me much more of a lesson. To someone who’s lived a life of struggle, it seemed to her that my clarity of purpose was more than enough of a reason to be happy, to feel whole.
Christa Avampato 