The Bargain of Patience
Our 12:30 pm appointment at Sanjoe Hospital to see Dr Thomas Stephen has officially vanished into the hospital abyss. It is now past 2:30 PM, and the nurse’s "soon" feels like a polite fiction in a room overflowing with patients. There is a distinct "time tax" here that feels like a total loss of agency—you can’t leave for lunch, you can't focus on work, and your day simply evaporates. Yet, as I watch my mother move her once-injured hand with ease, the frustration softens. A few weeks ago, I would have traded a hundred afternoons for this "boring" moment of recovery. The schedule is a failure, but the miracle of her health makes this stolen time a price I’m finally willing to pay.The injury is a thing of the past and I am grateful that “waiting” is our only remaining problem. #Gratitude