"arthritic hands, artistic hands"

She looked very much in pain as she was complaining about her hands. She was in her 40s and suffering from severe arthritis which made her hands deformed. She told me with a half-smile about her limitations of holding objects like rock, paper, and scissors.  To my surprise, she was not complaining of pain in her fingers or hands that was so obvious to me by the look of her red, hot, swollen fingers, and hands.

To my curiosity, I asked her whether the pain in her hands bother her as they looked painful. She replied as she looked at her deformed fingers; yes, it pains me as unable to hold the hands of my children. 

I saw at that moment the pain in her eyes while she was looking at her hands. She had no other regret as not able to hold a brush or canvas, food or drink, even to button up or unzip.

To some, arthritis is the trapped negativity affecting joints as a pent up emotion among people. So, they suggest to resolve and relieve with forgiveness.

Others find those deformed hands as the result of physiology altering autoimmune and, degenerative wear and tear under the grind of the aging calendar of once life.

But, some may see the hand of God working through a mother's hand; the artistic hands that once carve the life of a child with her loving embrace, now a yearning to hold on as long as she can even she can't with her arthritic hands. That day I saw the pain in her hands radiating to her eyes.

That day I saw a mother who was mourning for the loss of her hold; to hold the hands of her children and that was her true pain.

Blessings on the hand of women!

Angels guard its strength and grace,

In the palace, cottage, hovel,

Oh, no matter where the place;

Would that never storms assailed it,

Rainbows ever gently curled;

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.

(What Rules The World: Willam Ross Wallace 1865)

"the invisible umbilical cord"

He had a car accident and he broke bones as a collateral injury as he was describing his injuries to us in the treatment room. He told us that his car was declared totaled by his insurance. He said that was nothing unusual as it happens when cars and people go through these accidents. Some people have these lifetime experiences; some people's life changes and some may lose a life.

He was talkative, agitated like a manic, and his mother was stressed. He was acting out, he may have a concussion besides other differential diagnoses considered.

He was in his twenties and a survivor of a serious car accident. I saw him having the usual issues of his generation like believing in recreational  Marijuana better than alcohol instead of a gateway drug, the power of social media rather than a pleasure addiction Pavlov.

As I saw the interaction between a son and his mother, there was nothing but arguments.  He was not even listening to her even out of respect. I saw his mother's heartbreak showing on her face.  He looked like as he was lost in his stormy life of drugs, accidents, mental illness, a broken family, and the latest car accident.

To some, he was still attached to an invisible umbilical cord as his mother was supporting his existence under all circumstances. Others saw the toll of mental illness of a loved one which consumes their healthy anchors to rot with early aging and wrinkles.

God's Favorite Sport

She came to see me for a medical evaluation as an outpatient visit. Besides her eyesight issues, I found her doing great at being 77 years old. There was no history of diabetes, hypertension, mini-stroke, cancer, or arthritis. No aches or pains. I was pleasantly surprised. To me, she was amazingly well for her age. I told her that people like her will make doctors out of business soon. She smiled.

She told me that her favorite hobby was swimming and she was doing it for a long time, Offcourse now 77 and started at age 6.

She told me that she always felt connected to water throughout her life. She had swum in oceans too. Then she asked me that did I knew what is God's favorite sport, and replied as smoothly as she had put her question as she saw my utter ignorance.  She said God's favorite sport is swimming. I smiled as she appeared to me that she knew that for a fact. 

“It is He who created the heavens and the earth in six periods, and His throne extends over the water, so as to test which of you does best…”

Qur’an 11:7