Stop to Let the Raindrops Hit Your Skin
Recently, I have started holding office hours for my first-year students that I am mentoring. Basically, I just make myself available at the school for two hours on two nights a week. If anyone would like help practicing, I am ready! If not, I have two hours of uninterrupted study time.
Well last night, towards the end of my two hours, I got a notification on my phone that it was going to rain. I started packing up my stuff so that I could leave as soon as my time was over. I looked out the window and saw that it was pouring outside. I wish I could have been happy about the rain at that moment, but I was frustrated that I was going to have to stay longer at school.
It was still raining softly when I started walking to my apartment. All of a sudden I remembered how I use to love looking up at the sky during a rainstorm. I would treasure the raindrops as they hit my face and try to catch some on my tongue. When I realized that I had lost that sense of amazement and wonder, I was a bit sad.
This past month and a half have been difficult for me for a couple reasons. About a month and a half ago, one of my friends at church had just come down with an illness that looked like a cold. When he didn't get better after a week, his wife took him to the hospital. After several tests coming back with strange results, it was determined that he had severe gastrointestinal cancer of some sort. Not even a month later, the same week that I was moving back to Dothan, he passed. One day here, the next gone it seemed.
He and his wife sat in front of my parents at church. Each time that I would come home, he would say "there's the doc!" I still remember how I looked behind me for someone else when he first said that to me. He had faith in me and my journey.
On Monday, I got a text that another friend had died from pancreatic cancer. Although the end had been foreseen for a while, the memory of interactions with him made me excuse myself from class to shed some tears in the bathroom. (I didn't want anyone to think I was crying about EKGs.)
So last night, in the midst of the grief and the sadness of this past month and a half, I looked up towards the heavens and let the rain hit my face. And I was grateful to be alive and to be able to experience that phenomenon.
I hope that you remember your wonder at the little things of life like rain and sunshine. Treasure your abilities to move about as some are confined to rooms and beds. We are blessed, and may we not take it for granted. And may we all touch lives like those two men did to mine.
So stop to smell the roses and stop to let the rain gently hit your face.
Well last night, towards the end of my two hours, I got a notification on my phone that it was going to rain. I started packing up my stuff so that I could leave as soon as my time was over. I looked out the window and saw that it was pouring outside. I wish I could have been happy about the rain at that moment, but I was frustrated that I was going to have to stay longer at school.
It was still raining softly when I started walking to my apartment. All of a sudden I remembered how I use to love looking up at the sky during a rainstorm. I would treasure the raindrops as they hit my face and try to catch some on my tongue. When I realized that I had lost that sense of amazement and wonder, I was a bit sad.
This past month and a half have been difficult for me for a couple reasons. About a month and a half ago, one of my friends at church had just come down with an illness that looked like a cold. When he didn't get better after a week, his wife took him to the hospital. After several tests coming back with strange results, it was determined that he had severe gastrointestinal cancer of some sort. Not even a month later, the same week that I was moving back to Dothan, he passed. One day here, the next gone it seemed.
He and his wife sat in front of my parents at church. Each time that I would come home, he would say "there's the doc!" I still remember how I looked behind me for someone else when he first said that to me. He had faith in me and my journey.
On Monday, I got a text that another friend had died from pancreatic cancer. Although the end had been foreseen for a while, the memory of interactions with him made me excuse myself from class to shed some tears in the bathroom. (I didn't want anyone to think I was crying about EKGs.)
So last night, in the midst of the grief and the sadness of this past month and a half, I looked up towards the heavens and let the rain hit my face. And I was grateful to be alive and to be able to experience that phenomenon.
I hope that you remember your wonder at the little things of life like rain and sunshine. Treasure your abilities to move about as some are confined to rooms and beds. We are blessed, and may we not take it for granted. And may we all touch lives like those two men did to mine.
So stop to smell the roses and stop to let the rain gently hit your face.
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