Tuesday, August 06, 2013

even in a hurricane of frowns

One of my favorite clinic patients is in her 60s, widowed, never had any children. She sounds like a tragedy, but she's not. She has hardly a medical problem, which is impressive at my clinic. And though she lives by herself, she does not let it get her down. She gardens, she walks to church every day. She has friends- "they're like family to me," she says when I ask her about some friends who are visiting. She exudes a certain joy that I usually attribute to the young, but it's somehow all the more charming with age.

She told me she was trying to lose some weight by exercising more. I asked her what she does to exercise and she said, "I turn on the radio and dance in my living room for 30 minutes or so." Oh yeah, make fun of prancersing or whatever it's called all you want. I don't care, I found it adorable. In fact, I realized- I aspire to be that woman, with her guilty giggle as she defends herself- "The music is so good- why not?"

And in that spirit, I will ask you the same as you check this out: