Creating Caring Connections Through Presence

In a dramatic scene in the film Miracle on 34th Street, the idealistic lawyer asserts that we should “not overlook those lovely intangibles, as we'll find out in the end they are the only things that really matter.”1 Presence is one of those intangibles, an abstract concept that cannot be measured directly. According to Merriam-Webster,2 presence is defined first as person-to-person physical presence, or in her/his direct vicinity, or being with a thing that is “visible and concrete.” But more importantly, another more elusive presence is “something (as a spirit) felt or believed to be present.”2