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Recognized Social Butterfly

A SLIVER OF A SILVER LINING

A Sliver of a Silver Lining in Honolulu

Yesterday, my trip to the lab did not begin auspiciously. First of all, walking to the bus stop aggravated my arthritic hip. While waiting for the bus, I noticed a barefoot, unmasked, good looking hipster saunter toward me and two young ladies.  Initially, he tried to cajole something from them. Rebuffed, he sidled next to me and began to unintelligibly gab. Fearing that he was perhaps a Covid-19 spreader, I repeatedly and emphatically said no to whatever he was panhandling and turned away from him. Realizing that I was reluctant to help him, he soon took off, probably to pester some other people elsewhere.

When I got to the lab, the technician was concerned that my blood from the biggest vein on my right arm was too slowly seeping into the vials. She had to switch to my right arm to finish the laborious procedure. I have had multiple blood drawings (including three phlebotomies) to confirm that my blood cancer was under control.  During those times, my blood flowed rapidly. Now I’ll have to ask my cancer specialist during our zoom meeting tomorrow if my weak blood flow was merely a fluke or a potential problem. Go figure!

After I left the lab, I just missed the bus—another frustration. As I found a shady place to wait fifteen minutes for another one, I saw a homeless man wheeling his overstuffed shopping cart. As he crossed one street from me, he unleashed a barrage of curses. He was a scary guy. Although he soon went in the other direction, I was still shaken by his unprovoked profanities. Then a bunch of flies curled around my legs. What more could go wrong?

Many buses came by, but not the one that went back to Waikiki. I’m sure that the flies were heartened that I was still with them. As I haphazardly looked up for a moment, I had an epiphany that blotted out everything that had bothered me on my trip to the lab and back: The sun was ever so gently glistening on the top of a lush mountain peak haloed by wisps of clouds. I was so enraptured by this tableau that I almost didn’t notice that Bus 13 had arrived. Reluctantly, I got on the bus.

No matter what irritants occasionally plague me during the day, the glory of nature in Hawaii so often rescues me from my funk. It can be a brightly blooming solitary bird of paradise or the thunderous blasting of waves against the rocks at Sharks Cove in the winter.

The 19th century Romantic poets had it right. Nature is the soul’s redeemer.

 

schlomo
Recognized Social Butterfly

Sorry for the misprint. I don't have two right arms. The nurse tried the left arm first, then the right one.

schlomo
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