Non-Screen Time

Lately, like several times before, I have found it challenging to keep up with the demands of time this blog requires. In the hyper-speed world of electronic communication and the world's insatiable quest for new entertainment content, I find I need more non-screen time this time of year, especially now that the kids are home from school.

And yet, even though my hours in front of the screen have declined, time in front of patients has not. Call and work demands, staff and co-worker vacations, the end-of-the-year push for procedures as annual deductibles are paid in full, and the winter birds whose travel plans demand they get seen before heading South, continue to pull me from the kids. I guess it's the nature of what we do: the 90-year's pacemaker yesterday preempted my attendance at the annual Christmas pageant at church. I guess you could say we had our own pageant as we wheeled our nice lady into our lab. We prepped, we timed-out, we performed, we smiled, we bowed and went on our ways.

But we did it with our work families rather than our own.

By now, my kids have grown to understand this. They tell their friends why their Dad's not there, and the story still plays well amongst their peers: "Dang, your Dad does pacemakers?!?"

But I know quietly they had other thoughts: maybe hot chocolate or a Sunday breakfast after church? Or maybe a little more sleep would be nice. What do you mean clean up my room?

Thankfully, they did find time later to debrief me about the two lost black sheep amongst the sea of two- and three-year old white ones that were ushered down the aisle.

-Wes