I’ve had a little time to think about what health means to me,  spending my entire day hip deep trying to stay above the water line when it comes to treading through other peoples issues.

I feel that physical health receives so much focus in our society. Our health system has specialists and sub specialists galore. One who deals with only knees, another who specializes in kidneys and another who does heart or lung or liver. So many people who focus  specifically on treating a disease- to cure if possible, to maintain if not.

I am not a specialist, and I never  wanted to go down that path. Maybe it’s my attention span, or maybe I’m more of a big picture person, but I never saw myself doing one thing  for the rest of my career.  Some days I regret this, usually when I feel overwhelmed or have no idea what is wrong with someone, but  I mostly feel I made the right choice.

This week has been a big challenge in the mental health department for so many reasons. Someone I care about very much got sick very fast, and I just found out they passed away.  My heart breaks for the family, and even a little bit for myself.  I’ll miss them, and can’t really express how much because I don’t really feel that is my place.

I’ve also seen many people struggling just to keep going the last little while that sometimes I wonder how they do, when all they see is misery. I’ve started to call it March madness, even though it has extended far into April this year.

I listen, I talk, I tell them to hold on until things get better.

But sometimes, they don’t get better.  And then what? How does one treat that? Where is the special medicine and treatments that will allow me to help them?

I’m just a small fry in the world around me.

Just one person, hoping to help someone in some way, even if its just by being there when they need a shoulder.

Maybe today I made a difference.  I hope so.