Van Gogh Winter Landscape in Schnee
One kind word can warm three winter months.
Japanese Proverb
I know how enveloped I feel when someone says something kind to me. It is like a warm comforter wrapped around me on a chilly day. And it lasts, even beyond the winters of my life.
I just received a hand written letter (something rare as hen’s teeth these days from our younger generation) from a patient I cared for over five years ago. He wanted to tell me he is doing well and how he had appreciated my kindness to him. I was astonished that he remembered me and that in his letter he was uncertain if I would remember him. Patients don’t always know how they dwell for years in their doctors’ consciousness, how they teach us and how much we learn. I surely did remember this patient, his struggles with drug dependency, his strong urge to kill himself, and his desperate search for a reason to keep on living.
He has kept living and is doing well. He remembered my caring and kindness.
And now I’m wrapped in his comforting words through these chilly days.
Hankerings 