The Flare of Nostrils

Have you ever felt an uneasy feeling around you. On the first of August, I was to board a plane for Tel Aviv and then later make my way to Istanbul. I was going to attend my friend’s wedding and explore the area Florence Nightingale once visited.

Why had fear overwhelmed me? I do not know, but I could not go.

I definitely had a flashback from my childhood and that might have been a trigger. I didn’t grow up in a world dramatizing cowboys and Indians. I grew up playing war games and climbing in and out of foxholes. A foxhole not in the animal type, but the one soldiers dig as a shelter from the enemy (Collins, 2023).

With a vivid imagination I see Crimea, September of 1854, and then Florence Nightingale at the Scutari barracks. I didn’t see it from her perspective, but that of a soldier. He was running amidst incoming bombs and gunfire. As the fires burned, it filled the air with a choking smoke. He stumbles and falls with his face landing in a shallow pool. With water and air the spirit breathes a final psalm of peace. [End of thought.]

Wanting to wash away negative thoughts, I enter a spring fed pool. I submerge my head to respire and popple like a harbor seal. With my nostrils flared, I have a desire, a wanting of water and air.

Florence Nightingale (1969/1860) reminds us, “If you blow into water you will soil it with the animal matter from your breath. So it is with air. Air is always soaked in a room where walls and carpets are saturated with animal exhalations” (p. 90).

Reflecting on the evidence

1. Explain how the body uses oxygen to sustain life.
2. Analyze the spiritual symbolism of water and air from one culture.

References

Alaska Department of Fish and Game. (n.d.). Harbor seal species profile. https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=harborseal.main

Beck, M. (2023, June 26). The Aged Seal [Photograph].

Collins English Dictionary. (2023). Foxhole. In Collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved October 19, 2023 from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/foxhole

Collins English Dictionary. (2023). Popple. In Collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved October 19, 2023 from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/popple#

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Culture. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved October 19, 2023 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Respire. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved October 19, 2023 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/respire#:~:text=1,produce%20carbon%20dioxide%20through%20oxidation

National Army Museum. (n.d.). Crimean War. In National Army Museum, Chelsea London. Retrieved October 22, 2023 from https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/crimean-war

Nightingale, F. (1969). Notes on Nursing What it is, and What it is not. Dover Publishing. (Original work published 1860).

The Music of the Bible Revealed. (2021, December 7). Psalm 29. [YouTube]. Retrieved October 19, 2023 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=18Ktttt6Q7U

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Istanbul. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 20, 2023 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Selimiye Barracks. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2023 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selimiye_Barracks

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Tel Aviv. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 20, 2023 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Aviv

Special Thanks

Annah Schwartz Howell, my daughter, editor and reviewer for The Flare of Nostrils.