Life as a flux!

However hard as I often wish, I cannot find the solution to all of humanity’s problems - though the thought of their struggles is a heavy weight that constantly pulls me along the way of gravity. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to play God for a day. Then, there will be no need for Medical or Nursing schools, for there will be no need for doctors, nurses, or the hospital, as there would be no ill or diseased patients. There will be no jails, nor sadness, nor pain, nor sorrows; no death, no hunger, no crime; no addiction, no suffering, no war; no earthquakes, no heartbreaks. This must be heaven in my imagination. Come live with me.

But these days, I find that situations have a way of flipping between extremes in such short intervals, even without trying hard. One minute I’m worried over a looming problem, and then the next minute the trouble vanishes, and I wonder where it all went. A similar experience I have observed with bipolar patients I encountered at the Psychiatric unit. These show a quick vacillation in mood that leaves me perplexed, and thinking to myself that these guys must be really lucky to have no need to waste time on worry. Just live.

I’m almost at the end of my clinical rotations. This the 8th week. And who would have thought they would have come by so quick. Five weeks of pediatrics, and in the third week of psychiatry, with two more to go. Some days have been dreadful, while others have been nice.

There have been days of tireless work interspersed with precious moments with patients and colleagues on and off the wards. I have made few friends with the sick kids and the mentally ill adults, and have come to realize that the label “mad” is most times misused and misrepresented. Or maybe it is just me, so easy at making friends, even with the “mad” and “crazy” men and women. Yet, I am glad to know that my appeal goes across the border of intelligence and sanity. For it is not every day that I get a “can I go out on a date with you when I get out of here”, or “can I kiss you?” from a lady. Only this time, I had to emphatically reply with a “no, that would be inappropriate.”

But behind all the charades, it feels good to know that even with the worry in my heart that aches for them, when I smile, they smile back. And in this, we share an understanding of the simple ways in which we smoothly ride the flux of life.