For your amusement...

Today I had an epiphany. Okay, I'm back, I had to look up how to spell epiphany. A major realization of how much I have changed the last few years. Now in order to understand the epiphany, you must understand my day. It was a normal day for me. I left the house to meet with my first client. We discussed his daughter's health, she is 20 and they've found a lesion on her brain. I did a lot of listening. Then, my next client. She wanted to sell her TV at the pawn shop. I carried her TV out to the work van. I double check the tire that was flat yesterday. (A whole other story). We venture to the pawn shop and sell the TV. I've gotten to know the pawn shop guy recently through other clients. He is nice enough and quite talkative. My third client makes my life more interesting with each visit. I wrap up with her and start driving to group. I'm leading a group today on the benefits of laughter. My co-worker and I are eating lunch and doing final prep for group when our conversation is interrupted by a large chocolate lab in the office. He is followed by one of our most ill clients. Today he is in a motorized chair. I asked if he was there to the psychiatrist. He wasn't. We spent the next half hour chasing a dog and trying to figure out where this client's appointment is. Finally I tell him he can't have his dog at group so he leaves. About a minute went by and the phone rings. It's another co-worker saying that this client was supposed to be at an intake for drug treatment. He needs to be there in five minutes. These things are impossible to reschedule. So I step out the door to find him and tell him where he needs to be. He is two blocks down. Surely I can catch him, he's on a motorized chair. I start walking. Faster. Now I'm jogging. He's gone another block. Now I'm running. My flip flops are getting caught on the sidewalk. I'm running faster. Now I'm yelling for him and running. How fast can those stupid chairs go anyway? Still running. It's really hot. I have a million things to do. Now, I'm sprinting. Around a stop sign. Through the street. Down three blocks. And then, the epiphany. I used to be afraid of psychotic people chasing me. Now, I'm the one chasing them. What has happened to my life? I am chasing a high schizophrenic in a motorized chair down the street. His dog hears me first. The dog turns and starts running towards me. Finally the man hears me. I catch my breath and tell him where to go for his appointment. I walk back to the office. I put on my clown nose, grab a worksheet on the physiological effects of laughter and walk into the room full of mentally ill people. They are dressed in "normal" clothing, sitting appropriately and waiting for group. I'm out of breath, red cheeks, sore feet, wearing a clown a nose, wiping dog saliva off my shirt. And I thought they were the ones who needed help. :-)