If you want to be truly humbled... I mean taken to your knees humbled...You should spend the day at MD Anderson. As I sit here, healthy me, enjoying my dinner, anticipating a normal appointment tomorrow, I glance across the restaurant and study the faces of many who are acutely aware that their days are numbered. Of course all of our days are numbered but we too often coast along in a fog of denial, sleep walking through our days, believing tomorrow will always come. These people know the truth. Tonight I find myself staring at the couple sharing a good bottle of wine. Did they receive good news or was it bad? They just toasted one another, oblivious to the rest of us in the room....not smiling really but just satisfied to be together sharing their meal and their wine. I also notice the dutiful son lovingly sharing a meal with a very ill Mother. Does he believe it might be the last? Hes kind and attentive and he loves her. I glance at the one person alone tonight..(besides healthy me) Its just him and his overwhelming fear. In the middle of the room a young lady embraces a waitress, tears are shed and the hug lasts a good long time. Its a relationship forged after days of a battle now lost... A waitress who has, in this short while, become a friend. Humanity at its best. I hear people sharing treatment plans, symptoms...with strangers, not strangers really, but instead comrades fighting a common enemy. Life here, in this place, is precious. Every single moment is felt and experienced fully. Nobody cares if you are black or white or Hispanic or Middle Eastern or rich or poor......because cancer doesnt play favorites and love and death dont either. We are in this life together. If youre not positive about that then visit MD Anderson with me just one time. Its a gift.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 23:57:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015