We traverse parallel paths, you and I. Paths that intersect during times of stress, loss, and illness. Each of us searching for truth, understanding, and resolution.

Our stories need to be heard, but in these trying times, we are but mere specks in the immensity of the corporate orb of health care which rolls and overpowers all in its path. Its hunger seems not to be satiated, its grasp ever stretching.

The two of us were to be focal points in this system of care, but our images have been blurred. I yell out to be acknowledged, but my voice is lost in the void. I am but bits of data, a hollow reflection of who I am. You, who have taken oaths to heal, have been pushed to the side, mere servants to the masters of the corporate orb of health care. Your knowledge and experience are discounted. Your time needed to heal has been expended elsewhere to bolster the structure of the corporate orb.

The source of power lies in the hands of others who know not how to heal and save lives but instead honor the gods of profit and expansion. This corporate orb of health care absorbs the weak and powerless, growing bigger and bigger, pushing to the background those who seek healing and those healers who have already sacrificed so much.

You and I are standing in the shadows, waiting to be heard and seen, but we can only wait so long in the darkness and obscurity. We must be seen. We must be heard to survive and thrive. Our discontent must be sounded, loud and clear so that the masters of the corporate orb of health care can no longer ignore our cries.

We are lost and forgotten in the immensity, waiting in the shadows.

Our voices, shouting in unison, will be our strength and we will emerge from the shadows into the light. But only if our resolve remains firm.

Michele Luckenbaugh is a patient advocate. 

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