This week, I saw a plastic bowling set given to a child with cancer to use as a tool for occupational therapy. The way his face lit up as he prepared to show his family over FaceTime his unrivaled bowling ability was the spark of joy I needed to get me through my day. More importantly, I could see how excited it made his mother and his family as well.
On an oncology service, we encounter a lot of sadness day in and day out. We have kids with terminal diagnoses who are admitted for immediately dangerous conditions. Many of them are very sick. Most of my patients who have just received their diagnosis (especially the young ones) hate me. I am absolutely impressed with the ability of five-year-old children to give side eye and the silent treatment because that is typically what happens when I walk into a room. I’ve learned to move past it – after all, they have a terrible disease and we are the people who keep poking them and making their belly hurt and making them want to puke. I get it. But five is one of my favorite ages, and as a human being, it wears on me.
So we look for the sparks of joy in every day. They make it easier to do our job, a job I honestly would not give up for anything in the world. Here are some of the joyful moments I experienced at work this week:
- Decrying the unfairness of the Rainbow Road level of MarioKart with my school-aged patient while scrolling through YouTube videos with him
- Helping a patient who had previously not said three words to me build a Lego tyrannosaurus rex
- Enjoying the lovely fresh cookies distributed to all the teams by one of the senior residents who is on vacation
- The “lol!” messages I receive from my fellow
- Meeting my patient’s favorite stuffed animals who are helping her through this difficult time
None of these moments are that exciting. But they’re enough. And it’s those little sparks that keep us going day in and day out.
The prompt for this week is this:
“Write about sparks.”
You have as much or as little time as you would like to take. See you next week.
More unedited writing of mine. Seven minutes all about sparks.
Sparks of Joy
The dense fog settles
Once the truth is revealed.
Weighing down on their lives
Like a heavy blanket,
Obscuring all of the things
That made them
Them.
Every once in a while,
A memory from days past
Will peak through the surface:
An old toy,
A phone call from a dear friend.
A spark of joy,
Creating a beam of light
Streaming through the fog.
Some of the sparks come from above:
A new friend,
A new song,
A new toy to love.
The warmth clearing the fog,
So we can see the child below.
Writing for Wellness 