The other day, I sat with daddy in the chemo treatment room, full of patients, family, friends, and medical staff. The staff is friendly and warm. They understand the seriousness of this disease; they do not make light of it but they do bring light to it.
While I was helping daddy to the restroom one of the nurses broke into a song, “Tell me something good, bow-bowww, tell me, tell me, tell me…” I heard her and chuckled. I sang the next line, “Tell me that you love me, yeaah.” She and the other nurses laughed and so did I. We continued to sing a moment then tried to figure out who had performed the song. I googled the title and told them that Rufus and Chaka Khan had sung it. “Yea! That’s right!” the nurse said. I found a YouTube video of the song and played it for her and the oncology chaplain. We laughed, and the nurse and I danced a little as it played.
While holding the video for them, another nurse was stepping in and out of our conversation and noticed the tattoo on my wrist. She asked what it meant. I told her that it’s the Mayan symbol for Earth, representing movement and slow shifting. The nurse said to the others, “She is grounded.” I responded with a smile, “Yes.” The nurse then asked what my turtle tattoo symbolized. I laughed and said it was a long story. The chaplain commented that my tattoos seemed to reflect nature. I said, “Yes, I call myself a nature mystic.” “Hmmm,” he replied, “sounds like panentheism…you find God, the divine, or inspiration through nature.” “Yes, pretty much, at least that’s one way I experience the divine.” I responded.
The chaplain and I continued to talk and discovered that we both write blogs so we shared our information. It seemed that we had a few things in common, and we made a nice connection.
In fact, I made several nice connections that day. I had some tender moments with daddy, fun moments with the nurses, and spiritual moments with the chaplain. Such moments can be given and received in the most unlikely places, even during chemo treatment.
Like the single droplets refreshing the flower, each moment holds the possibility of goodness.
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