Sometimes reality exceeds expectations, sometimes awaiting confrontation with who we don't expect makes us turn pale. We should ask ourselves why we stick to our expectations, because what we expect makes us stop in anticipation... what we expect is only the beginning. What we don't expect instead is what changes our lives.
It's one of those things that people say: you can't go on until you haven't let go of the past... Letting go is the easy part, going ahead is painful, so sometimes we fight and we try to keep this unchanged.
But things can't always remain the same... at a certain point we have only to let go... to go ahead... because it doesn't matter how painful it is... it's the only way to grow up.
I have an aunt who whenever she poured anything for you she would say "Say when". My aunt would say "Say when" and of course, we never did. We don't say when because there's something about the possibility, of more. More tequila, more love, more anything. More is better.
Maybe we're not supposed to be happy. Maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy. Maybe being grateful means recognizing what you have for what it is. Appreciating small victories. Admiring the struggle it takes to simply be human. Maybe, we're thankful for the familiar things we know. And maybe we're thankful for the things we'll never know. At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate.
As surgeons, there are so many things we have to know. We have to know we have what it takes. We have to know how to take care of our patients... and how to take care of each other. Eventually, we even have to figure out how to take care of ourselves. As surgeons we have to be in the know. But as human beings, sometimes it's better to stay in the dark, because in the dark there may be fear, but there's also hope.
We all heard the alarms go off and we ignored them.
We challenge luck. It's human nature. When they tell us to not touch something, we usually do. Even if we know it'd be better not to.