Friday, October 13, 2006

thank you, medical community.

hmm, the other day in my journal i wrote out a prayer thanking God for all the people on the earth that desire to work in the medical field. i'm going to make it a point to be more thankful for them in the future. because, well, i sure don't like anything that has to do with sickness or the treatment thereof. i hate hospitals; i hate spit cups and blood tests and bed pans and IVs and roaches and bandages and oxygen tanks and medications... but i've found myself spending a lot of time at one particular hospital this week at the bedside of a friend of mine. his name is Raju. he's been living on the streets, using drugs for the past 20 years. he was one of the first people i met here. his HIV is really advanced and his tuberculosis unmistakable. it's hard to even translate the experiences of this past week into words on a screen. i have been so touched by the many people who've sacrificed and pulled together to care for and love Raju in this time. Raju has had a tough life. but he has found hope through the love of Jesus shown to him through so many people before me. and well, my life has been changed just sitting/sleeping on the floor by his bed this past week, and doing all those things i hate to do...

on a lighter note: i cut/layered my hair with fingernail clippers on a whim yesterday morning... i think it was a good idea.

intermittently reading:
Bird by Bird - by Anne Lamott -- random, light, moving
Prophetic Imagination - by i forget -- hard, accademic, but i think he's on to something

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

molly, i also do not like hospitals or sickness or drugs for that matter. It saddens me that there is so much darkness that people only find relief in drugs which completely destroy their bodies. In fact, on this rainy day in Austin I weep for those in despair and those who are fighting sickness in physical and emotional ways.

Free and Living said...

gratefulness. that's what i sense from our molly boo.