Let Me Make a Note of That

I needed to refresh my knowledge about side effects of one of my prescriptions, so I looked in a file folder marked “drug info sheets.” Flipping through all those pages, I came across a half sheet of paper that didn’t look like the others. The print was small, and there was a hand-written list on the back. I finally figured out it was the receipt from a train trip I’d taken back in 2009. I had been out to visit friends in Fresno, then gone on to meet other friends in Sacramento. The train was the cheapest way to make that nearly 200 mile trip, and my Fresno friends recommended it. They’d taken a train trip a few months earlier and enjoyed it.

I enjoyed my trip, too. I stayed put in my seat and watched the world go by. I read, I knitted, and the three and a half hours passed pleasantly.

But why was that receipt in the drug folder? It had nothing to do with prescriptions. And what about the lists written on the back? Also not drug-related.

?????

At the top, in blue ink, it said:
Silver Ribbon
Baby Ribbon.

That sounds like a shopping list. I may have been thinking about wrapping the gift I was knitting for a niece with a new baby.

Below those words were these, written in black:
San Francisco
Ocean Shore
Train Tracks
Butterflies

Hmmm. I wasn’t anywhere near San Francisco or the ocean. I certainly was on train tracks. Were there butterflies? I don’t remember.

What was that list? Ideas for things to write about? Did I wish I was going to San Francisco? Did I miss the ocean? (I always miss the ocean.) Did the train tracks look like silver ribbon? Baby ribbon? And where do the butterflies fit in? They fly wherever they want, even to San Francisco.

Moreover, why did I think I needed to keep this, and how did it get into the drug information folder? I’ve got the list, but that’s all I’ve got.

I had a doctor’s appointment last Friday. At this particular office, they are completely changing over to computers, and the doctor sat with me and a laptop. In this new way, doctors are putting their notes directly into the computer, instead of making written notes and having them transcribed by secretaries later. It seems efficient, for doctors who learned to do that in the first place. Maybe the younger doctors, fresh out of med school, have been using computers all along. Some of my doctors are on the youngish side. But some of them are my contemporaries, agewise. And while I have had plenty of time to learn how to use a computer, at least somewhat efficiently, they have been busy being physicians and reading journals and continuing to hone their craft, keeping up with advances in their field, and for the most part, that hasn’t included learning computer skills.

So, it was a longer appointment than usual, while he navigated through. We chatted about computers as opposed to our favored method of taking notes–using a pen or pencil and a pad of paper. To us, it still seems quicker, and more reliable. I said that I did write reminders on my phone all the time. But, when I go back to get them, I can’t remember which app holds the information I want to retrieve. Did I put it in Notes? In ScatterBrain? In Errands? In Memos? In an e-mail to myself? And where is my grocery list?????

Obviously, the paper and pen thing doesn’t always work out for me either, as I have filed away a list that meant something to me at one time (four years ago), in the folder with the drug information.

“Patience” my mother would always say to me, when I got frustrated over some matter or another. That never helped me be more patient. Practice seems to help develop patience, however shriek-inducing that practice might be.

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 8:25 (NRSV)

I know this reference refers to the very big picture of our hope. But I also know that God of the large things is God of the small things, too. And there are a lot of small things for which I wait, hoping that my patience will kick in when it needs to.