Water

For a month of 430am-1140pm days, when my predominant feelings were stress and melancholy, I had a few moments of peace when I washed my hands before and after patients.

 I probably sound crazy, and like someone who's already been in the system too long for their age, but washing my hands was rejuvenating.  That month, when I washed my hands, it was just me in a little one-person-wide alcove in the middle of a busy hallway full of doctors, nurses, and patients.  I felt like I had a little bit of peace, my hands felt truly clean and refreshed, and it was a pleasant change from all the hand sanitizer that has strange, strong smells, and either an unpleasant viscosity.  I guess I get tired of runny, slippery goo pretty quickly.

I've always been a water person in the sense I find lakes and oceans beautiful, and rain as well.  I felt like washing my hands in the little alcove was a time I could just be left alone and shut off from the world, just hearing and feeling the running water that left me a little rejuvenated.

I was really surprised to find peace in something so mundane.