Monday Moments – November 2, 2020
November 1, 2020
The excerpt below is from Dr. Kimberly D. Manning’s January 9, 2020 twitter feed. It is the retelling of a conversation she had with an elder sick patient.
Her: “And I tried to tell her–‘Baby, even when sad and heavy stuff happen ’round you, it don’t erase the happy stuff, hear?”
Her: “Like, if you lose your wife, right? I can tell you I’m sorry and mean it. But then if my little next door neighbor come over and borrow a cup of sugar and want to tell me a joke he heard in school that day? I got it in me to laugh at it.”
Me: *still listening*
She searched my face.
Her: “Like. . . I can be sad ’bout your wife AND laugh at that joke, too. And it don’t make me no less sad ’bout your predicament neither. ‘Cause, see, I think happy and sad–they thick as thieves. So I say go on and let ’em live in harmony.”
I nodded.
Me: “I feel guilty sometimes when my happy is still there in sad times.”
Her: “Don’t, Dr. Manning. Your heart would go crazy if it had to just be one of those all the time.”
