Needed That

Had a wonderful night with three hilarious nurse-friends from the hospital. We had planned to go to a movie tonight after dinner at Rae's but in the end we sat and ate a lovely feast of fresh summer salads, enjoyed delicious beverages, stared at the ocean, and told stories.

I thought about how our conversation rolled along the whole perspective of life--from defining when life starts to what it feels like to watch a prolonged death. We laughed so very very hard at stories about the quirky people that populate our lives in and out of the emergency department--from the overly energetic nurse that falls asleep watching Inception, to the practical jokes we play on some of the docs, to the names we've been called during the night shift by drunken patients.

In these exchanges I hear sadness, frustration, humor, humility, love--every raw emotion possible.  I think about how many times those emotions have washed over us in the hospital. When those stories start rolling one really develops an appreciation for what we see in those buffed MRSA coated corridors.

It was better than any movie we could have watched. It was just what I needed.