Walking, Walking, Walking

My journey began and ended at home as a representation of the present. For the longest time, I have been a worrier--always worrying about what needs to get done next or how many items are left on one of my many to-do lists. Beginning and ending this map with a symbol of where I physically am now served as a reminder to live in the moment and worry a little less.

The next stop was the little creek by my apartment building. Last week in class, we discussed meditation and in the exercise that followed class I attempted to suspend my inner speech as Moffett described. As I wrote last week, the only time I recall being successful at this suspension was when I was scuba diving. In last week's activity, I attempted to recreate this in the only way I knew how--by water. It was only natural, then, to let somewhere with water represent meditation. I love this particular location because I walk past it every day on my way to class and it always makes me feel happy and peaceful. Each day, it is different. One day there are ducks, the next day the water is overflowing from the rain and the next the water is almost invisible beneath the fallen leaves. This idea is also very present in my own meditation because it reminds me that I, like this creek, am a dynamic and changing being and I grow and change from day to day just like it does.

A short walk from the creek was a gorgeous and enveloping tree. This represented silence. First of all, the branches of the tree go so low they almost touch the ground, but there is an opening on one side where you can walk into the center of the tree. When you stand by the trunk in the center, you are enveloped in the tree and surrounded by its branches on all sides. It is like being inside a bubble, except it's a tree. It brought to my mind connections to my own private bubble--where it is totally silent except for my own thoughts. Secondly, it was important to me for the locations for meditation and silence to be physically close together because in terms of reflection the two are very closely linked as we saw through Belanoff and Moffett.

Next, I headed to Olin. In my time at DU I have spent a lot of my time in Olin for my science classes. I believe science completely relates to questioning because that is what we do. We are constantly asking why things work the way they do, or why our experiment didn't work, or why does that person have that illness.... "Questioning" was the word I wrote on my second map. My reflective practices have always related to questioning whether that means asking myself why I did something or wondering what a past experience means for me in this moment. There was no better place to represent that than the building I have asked countless questions in.

After visiting Olin, I traveled to Nagel. I lived in Nagel during sophomore year and I loved that room so dearly. Just seeing the outside of that building made me miss my old room so much. Seeing Nagel represents acknowledging the past. There are a lot of things about my past that I miss--old friends, less stress, seeing my dog everyday, etc. These things can bog us down, though, if we let them. In reflection, I think it is very important to acknowledge the past and determine what we can learn from it, as Gawande describes in the medical field. As I look toward my future, I think about where I have been and how that makes me who I am today. There is a lot to learn from the things we have done before.

The second to last stop on my journey was the library to see collaboration at work. Collaboration was something I put on my very first map because I believe it is very important to hear the opinions and ideas of others in my field of science and in reflection. When we reflect with others, ideas or thoughts we overlooked are presented to us and may change our perspective entirely. Schon discussed this when determining causal stories and the activity we did in class with the Washington monument also showed the power of discussing with a group. Gawande mentions this as well by describing the power of discussing one's mistakes with others in an effort to never repeat the same mistakes again.

Finally, I passed by the Office of Graduate Studies in Mary Reed. This represents my future, or what I hope my future will be. Visions of graduate school have been dancing in my head for months, but there have been times where I have doubted that graduate school is what I really want to do. Through reflection, I was able to uncover that yes, graduate school is really what I want. This location served as a reminder that an uncertainties about the future can often be clarified by reflection. If not clarified, at least you will probably feel a little better afterwards.

The common thread throughout my maps has been questioning and the past, present and future. In the first map, my ideas were centered on self-improvement. That is, improving the current self by using past experiences and future goals to create an even better future self. The ideas of the future were also in the second map as I drew a fish, a shark and a boat--all things that connect to my future career goals. These ideas were important to incorporate into this latest map because self-improvement and creating a better self are still the ultimate goals for my reflective practice. It is becoming more clear to me that the past must be acknowledged and reflected upon before I can grow into the best version of myself. Questioning is also super important to me because I reflect by asking myself questions about my desires, my goals, my happiness. This theme was also necessary to continue. This was the first time I really included meditation and silence in my maps, though. Last week's meditative practice was very special because it helped me to find some peace in a hectic day and as I continue onwards these moments will only become more and more important to have. These maps are a true representation of composed knowledge because as I learn more and my thoughts evolve so too do the maps I make.

~~~To get to the future, we can't ignore the past, but we must always return to the moment.~~~