The Reason Why-Rachael Yamagata

Yellow (Coldplay cover)-Petra Haden and Bill Frisell

syrinx:

Syrinx was one of those versatile virgins of Arcadia, who, on being pursued by Pan beside the river Ladon, turned herself into a reed, from which Pan made his pipes, so giving her name to various tubular structures, eg syriges, and syrinxes, which are tubular or slit-like cavities in or close to the central canal of the cervical cord. They may extend up or down.

-Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (My Best Friend)

you have an aura

"I want people to feel an immediate happiness and cheerfulness when they are around me. To make a difference in someone's life. I want to make an impression in someone's life, so that even though I may be delicate and fragile, my footprints are permanent within the hearts of the ones I've touched."

via creampuff, again.

thoughts running through my head now:

"I like the blue colour, its very... bright."
"Is it too bright?"
"Well, its hospital appropriate."
"But it has weird frills at the bottom, makes my butt look big."
"Frills = cute!"
"Frills = fat."

what does it take to find a lost love?

Today my friend turned 90 years old. The hospital staff sang him a birthday song when we were having tutorial. He told me he wanted to hit 100 years old, said that with a grin and hope in his voice. He is a cute old man, tells me about his education, his job, his mee goreng. He says he likes to cook his own food, that he puts 6 onions, 60 cents toufu and a little yellow mee and he cooks it by himself. That the kind they sell outside isn't nice, "they give so little towgay".

Today I said goodbye && take care to another friend who went home. He defaulted treatment for his thyroid problem for many years, because he didn't have the money to pay for medication. He said he didn't know what to do when he goes home, "Singapore is a very hard place ah. People are very unfriendly, and they are selfish." And then he told me firmly: "Don't press people down because when you go, no one will come and send you off".
Don't press people down.

Today I said a cheery good morning to this man who wanders the hallways every morning. The hallways in AH are a breezy, open place to be and today he was looking out one of the colonial style windows, gazing at the tress outside.
He has lung cancer.
I try to greet him happily every morning because sometimes that's the best we can do, to be cheerful for them.

This week has been busy but fulfilling.

Drinking chamomile tea and:

"Do you know what happens when you hurt people? When you hurt people, they begin to love you less. That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less."
- The God Of Small Things.

via creampuff

Maybe if you didn't say those things, I'd love you a whole lot more.

appearances deceive.

2 minutes into the conversation, his eyes filled with tears.
"Wo huo zai shi jie shang hen tong ku, mei you ban fa le."

Later my friend asked, "why did you talk to him?".
"Sometimes the best thing we can do is to listen."

this is how i'm feeling right now:

like there's no way forward, and definitely none back.

fix your shattered bones.

if you only had one more day to live, what would you do?