I was sitting in the waiting room at Raleigh Neurology preparing for my monthly IV. One of my friends who I see monthly was in the waiting room as well. We didn’t say much. The TV was blaring in the back ground telling the same story over and over again, beating the crisis, chaos and confusion, like a drum against our hearts. But we just looked at each other . . . in each other’s eyes. We smiled. We were comfortable in each other’s presence.
At one point she blew something off her arm. Partial stroke victim, it was hard for her to reach. I walked over and gently brushed her arm. She thought maybe it was a bug but wasn’t sure. She gently tapped my hand in a gracious gesture, smiled at me and I sat back down. We continued with our comfortable conversation with our eyes only as the TV continued to hammer at us in the background. We chose to ignore it and instead, experience real community, real life, real touching of lives.
Community is all around us waiting to happen. We can engage and watch our hearts begin to heal. Or we can watch TV, fill our souls with social media and watch our hearts shrivel. The good news is we have a choice. I choose life and community today. Thank you IV suite friend for choosing that with me.