...The Medicine Wheel: A Guide to Achieving Personal Goals in Life One of the important subjects that is of great interest in Aboriginal Studies is the Medicine Wheel; how it is used as a guide for personal decision making and actions through life, particularly to achieving our personal goals. What the Medicine Wheel is all about and how it helps guide us to a more fulfilling life is a question most of us wonder. The Medicine Wheel is a crucial element of First Nation’s culture. It is a powerful symbol of the aboriginal people’s spirituality. It is the essence of their way of life, a key to understanding the universe, and a guide in which an individual can reach wholeness. It provides framework for growth and direction in one’s life (Roberts, Harper, Bull, & Heideman-Provost, 1998). “The Medicine Wheel symbolizes the interconnection of all life, the various cycles of nature, and how life represents a circular journey” (Traditional Aboriginal Medicine, 2009). The Medicine Wheel as a visual symbol is an effective tool for personal development (Native American Medicine Wheel, 2011). Based on my learning from the class discussions and presentations, I found this project very interesting and inspiring. I found it to be an important guide towards attaining success. In this paper is my vision of what a medicine wheel would be like and how I connect the medicine wheel ideas to my outlook, and to realizing my goals in life. ...
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...Most of the memorable stories that resonate with readers have a major central theme/s that directs the plot and ties in all the elements of fiction together such as characters, settings, and conflicts. Similarly, the central theme underlying my journey “To search for meaning through medicine” centers around patient centered care. Patient centered care involves respecting patient’s cultural values, preferences, and needs and ensuring that patient’s values guide all clinical decisions (Institute of Medicine). This idea of patient centered care is at the heart of my journey. It was this revelation that sparked my interest in medicine in the first place and it was this concept that urged me to apply to Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. The consciousness...
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...In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, although Aminata suffered greatly throughout her journey from Africa to America due to being deprived of food, water and clothing, her willingness to help the medicine man translate instructions to the Fulbe captives certainly alleviated her living conditions. From the very beginning of the journey, all the captives, including Aminata were bound and “locked inside a pen, spending the whole night standing on sandy soil that stank of urine and feces” (Hill 75). As depicted, these captives were confined in their little compartment, surrounded by filth and inhumanely treated. However, as soon as Aminata began to help the medicine man, she is given a “calabash of water and a coconut shell held with boiled...
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...twenty years apart. Either piece of literature has a long list of characters. A Worn Path’s main focus is about a black woman in the year of 1941. The journeys that are characterized in these writings are symbolic of some meaningful lifelong precedence that one should adhere to. I intend to show that these to paths may not cross one another but they do symbolize hope and promise is at the end of the journey. In The Road Not Taken, roads in the woods and forks in roads symbolize crises and decisions. Similar forks symbolize for us the center of free will and fate. (Frost, 1916) We are free to choose, but we do not really know beforehand what we are choosing between. Our direction is determined by a choice and it is impossible to separate the two. This poem does not advise. It does not say, “When you come to a fork in the road, study the footprints and take the road less traveled by. Frost’s focus is more complicated. First, there is no less-traveled road in this poem; it isn’t even an option. Next, the poem seems more concerned with the question of how the concrete present will look from a future vantage point. (Frost, 1916) In A Worn Path, is the tale of the unstoppable love and care of a grandmother for her grandchild. It tells a story of sheer determination as Phoenix Jackson makes a long journey into town to get medicine for her chronically ill grandson. She strives forward despite frequent obstacles in her way that include her own failing health and the grandchild's slim...
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...In the story “A Worn Conflict” by Eudora Welty the story is of a woman named Phoenix Jackson who takes a Journey through the country into the city to take medicine to her grandson. An element that Welty used to show Phoenix journey to the city is conflict. She uses the 4 conflict styles to explore how Phoenix Jackson comes in conflict with society, herself, nature, and another human. The first conflict that Phoenix Jackson explores in the story is human vs. nature. This comes along as she starts her journey in the country to make it to the city she acknowledges the things that she may come across her path while taking her journey to the city. “Out of my way…foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons, and wild animals” (Welty 333). She acknowledges that these are things that she may encounter or come across while on her journey, but hopes that she doesn’t which explains her saying “out of my way”. Also another human vs. nature conflict that is explored in the text is when Phoenix comes across the scarecrow that she mistakes for a ghost. “… it was silent as a ghost … ghost she said sharply, who be you the ghost of” (Welty 335). “You scarecrow…dance, old scarecrow,…while I dance with you” (Welty 335). Once realizing that it was a scarecrow instead of a ghost Phoenix was relieved....
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...In Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” there are many symbolic features that serve to enhance the description of Phoenix Jackson’s journey to town. From the biblical references and birds, to the protagonist’s name, and the windmill, Welty effectively implements a series of symbols to further develop the true meaning behind Jackson’s journey. There are many examples of symbols in “A Worn Path,” that symbolize biblical events. Phoenix says, “…and the good Lord made his snakes to curl up and sleep in the winter. A pleasure I don’t see no two-headed snake coming around that tree, where it come once. It took a while to get by him, back in the summer” (385). The snake symbolizes the serpent among the Garden of Eden who tempts Eden to stray from her intended...
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...of determination of Phoenix Jackson "an elder Negro woman" and how she walks a journey through the woods and fields on her way to town to get medicine for her chronically ill grandson. As she begins her journey, she talks to herself and warns, "Out of my way, all you foxes, owls, beetles, jack rabbits, coons and wild animals!…Keep out from under these feet, little bob-whites…Keep the big wild hogs out of my path" (Welty 306), because as she says, "I got a long way" (Welty 306). She has taken several times before, and now "The time come around"(Welty 309), and she must travel it again. "Her eyes were blue with age. Her skin has a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles" (Welty 306). “She was very old and small and she walked slowly in the dark pine shadows, moving a little from side to side in her steps, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grandfather clock” (Welty 306). The description of Phoenix Jackson and how she is walking through her journey at the beginning of the story symbolizes how difficult this trip is for her and what she is facing as an elderly woman such as herself for her unstoppable love and care of her grandson. She supports herself with a cane, striving not to fall with every step she takes just adds to her difficulties. Phoenix is determined to go down that path despite anything that might come between her and getting the medicine for her grandson. Her actions and desire show that body may be worn out, but the...
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...“The Worn Path”, by Eudora Welty tells the story of an elderly grandmother as she walks into the city to retrieve throat medicine for her grandson. Joseph Campbell describes the archetypal hero’s journey in A Hero With A Thousand Faces. Phoenix’s journey corresponds to the hero’s journey. Helpers along the way, entering the unknown, and tests that occur on the journey help to correspond Phoenix’s journey with a hero’s journey. One way Phoenix’s journey is similar to the hero’s journey is that she encounters helpers along the way. Campbell states that a hero will meet multiple helpers along his journey (69). One helper Phoenix encounters is the wagon track. Phoenix says “‘This the easy place. This the easy going’” (490). The wagon track is a helper because the barren path makes it easier for elderly Phoenix to walk. Another helper is the woman who ties Phoenix’s shoe. After Phoenix arrives to...
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...Challenges Faced on the Journey The California Gold Rush affected the individuals involved in many ways. Many people had traveled to California for one thing. Gold. They went for the gold because of the money that came along with it. Men had left their jobs and families to travel to California by sea or trail. The individuals of the Gold Rush faced many challenges traveling to California such as diseases, lack of supplies needed, and time it took to get there within the environment they chose to travel. One of the many challenges faced in the Gold Rush was sickness and disease. Different travelers faced different illnesses. In the text it states, “Often people tied themselves to their beds to keep from being tossed about. Seasickness abounded.”...
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...If I had to describe myself in one word, I would say “perseverance”. It is a journey of a girl from a developing country raised by a single mother with limited financial resources but with eyes on her goal. I have encountered many obstacles in my path, but I have always been steadfast. Whether it is studying for USMLE or 36 hour tiring calls in the hospital or going all the way to America, all by myself when I never went out of the city where I was born and raised. My father died fighting laryngeal cancer when I was ten years old. Despite the traumatizing experience of my father’s illness and his subsequent death, I have always seen my mother as a symbol of courage. She always used to say, “no matter how difficult the situation may seem, never give up. Keep moving and doors will open for you”. I was compelled to join a nursing school due to financial restraints, but my dream of becoming a doctor always lived in my heart. After a few months, I started working hard and decided to enroll in the entrance test of medical school. I got...
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...The Journey of Life David Hathaway English 125 Anna C. Morrison June 10, 2012 The Journey of Life The journey of “life” that we all take is the most amazing experience that any one of us could have. Every one of us humans has a story to tell about our journey of “life.” Whether it is a story of an experience we once had, a relationship, a decision we had to make, or countless other topics these experiences make up the most amazing journey of “life” that we all make from birth to death. And many of the journeys in life can be a struggle. Eudora Welty’s short story “A Worn Path” is the story of an old woman experiencing a journey in her life with countless struggles along the way. Eudora Welty’s short story “A Warn Path” gives us the journey that an old woman makes out of love for her family and the strong will and determination she has to complete the journey. Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” is a poem about having to make a hard decision during his journey of life. Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” gives us the journey on a man who has to make a decision and choose what path he wants to spend the rest of his life down. Both “A Warn Path” and “The Road Not Taken” have one particular theme which is “Journey,” but both pieces of literature have different content, form and style. While the journey is the theme of each of these pieces of literature, each author gives a different perspective of the journey through different meaning. In the poem “The Road Not Taken...
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...and for readers to understand the region in which the characters lived. The descriptions of the land and the accents of the characters are what separated the south from the north. In Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the reader learns about the journeys of two old ladies. While these journeys are both life journeys they are different in nature. The protagonist in “A Worn Path’s” story is about a journey of race and the obstacles in life that she has had to overcome and still has to face each day of her life, while the protagonist in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is about a spiritual journey that one must take in order to find favor with God and receive His grace and all of His goodness. Both of these stories transcend time and please because the themes in both of these while different can be seen in the world around us today. Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” is a journey about race and the obstacles the old lady has to overcome in order to help her grandson whom swallowed lye a few years back and occasionally gets sick so Phoenix Jackson has to travel through the woods into town to get him medicine. The time of year that this particular journey takes place is significant because it is at Christmas, which in literature is symbolic of rebirth and/or change for the better. This may also represent the idea that slavery is over and while there still may be some obstacles to overcome life is only going to get better from now on for the African...
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...My Journey Through Life With Bipolar Disorder My journey through life with Bipolar Disorder has not been fun at the very least. I have lived over 22 years with the debilitating disease. A lot of people do not understand the meaning of what it is. The definition of Bipolar Disorder is, “A brain disorder that causes shifts in mood, energy, activity task, and the ability to carry out day to day task” (NIH). For a lot of people they seem to think, oh you can just jump out of the manic episode or the depression episode; well it doesn’t work like that for me. I have the most severe form of the disease called Rapid-cycling Bipolar Disorder, Rapid- cycling means you have more than 4 episodes in a year that require hospitalization. I was first diagnosed at the age of 21, when what I thought was a normal life was turned upside down because, my husband found me unresponsive on the kitchen floor from an overdose of prescribed medicines. After spending nearly a week in ICU and since the cause was a suicide attempt, I was transported to Moses Cone Behavioral Health where I spent four weeks and was formally diagnosed. Being inpatient in a mental hospital is not like being hospitalized in a normal hospital; they take everything that they think you can hurt yourself with including dignity. During my first stay as with all the rest you live in their little world, trying different medicines, therapies, therapy and spending time with Doctors and sometimes not even knowing what day...
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...Symbolism of the Journey in "The Road Not Taken" and "A Worn Path" ENG125: Introduction to Literature Instructor: Deborah Cunningham Amber Huntley April 9, 2013 Symbolism of the Journey in "The Road Not Taken" and "A Worn Path" When reading a short story or a poem it is not possible to comprehend the author’s true meaning of his or her written word without using symbolism to bring the literary work to life. Oftentimes the symbolism can be interpreted differently by each individual. We do know that the symbolism of literary works are created in the imagination of the writer to show certain events or interrelated facets of the literary work. Moreover, the joy of reading is so that the reader can interpret what these symbols mean to them and begin the wonderful journey into the world of literature. As we read, we begin to unravel and decode the symbolic nature of the characters journey throughout the written word. Also; the journey is not only in the reading of the literary work but, in deciphering the symbolism to find its true meaning as it relates to you, the reader of the short story or poem. Therefore, we can see from Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” and Eudora Welty’s short story, “A Worn Path” that the symbolism a writer uses is the journey to discovering the path of the literary work itself. The best example of this symbolic journey is Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken.”. In this poem we read about a man...
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...It hit me as I sat excitedly at Cole Field House in the midst of thousands at the Muslim Interscholastic Tournament that “life is a difficult journey made straightforward with the help of others”. In the immense space, amongst my peers and in an atmosphere of academic excellence, I felt amazed at the process I had just transited through. My transition from childhood to adulthood happened at this nationally recognized event when I was a freshman in high school. I participated in a fascinating business venture aspect of the competition. I realized I could apply the tenets of what I was learning to my dream of medicine. Challenged by my comfort zone, I learned that trial and error within my fairly large group yielded amazing results!...
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