Three years ago, I was hired at a dental office that specialized in patients who had cancer of the head or neck.  The dentists that I worked with increased the quality of life for these patients by making dentures for them so they could eat and drink, or make new eyes or new ears.  Every day was a life learning lesson for me.  What struck me as I spoke to these patients was that no matter how invasive their surgeries were or how brutal the radiation was that they went through, they felt that there was always someone else in a worse place.  The age of the patients ranged anywhere between 17 and 90.

Each day I am grateful for the experience of working in that practice because these people taught me to see the small things.  I see people in the checkout line-up getting aggravated by the senior citizen ahead of them as she struggles trying to get her change out of her purse.  Whenever I see people get angry or flustered over the small things, I remember my patients who are just happy to be alive.  When I feel myself getting annoyed with something, I try to remember that it's a small thing and that things could be worse.