A Word of Gratitude

I’ve been volunteering at the hospital several times now. I can’t exactly say its been a rip roaring success. So far I have read to one patient. Then again I haven’t exactly asked most of the patients if I could read to them. Many of them are visiting with family, or are consulting with nurses or are asleep. And I learned from my hospital stays never disturb someone if they are sleeping, it’s hard to do in a hospital especially when there are tubes inserted all over your body. When I do ask someone and they turn me down I try not to take it personally. Would I want a complete stranger reading me or would I want to just watch TV and eat a fruit cup. Probably the latter. And that’s a writer talking. If it keeps going like this, I plan on asking if there is something else they want me to do. Everytime I pass the behavioral health ward (aka the psych ward) I feel like someone poured liquid relief on me. That I am on this side of the door and not the other. That I don’t have visitors identifying themselves so they can visit me. That I can see my friends and family every time I want. Its such a freeing thing to know your life is your life, not held on some clipboard or a file folder in the nurses’s station. And that is what I’m grateful for today.