Finding Joy in the Most Unlikely Places

Community fosters joy.

I was in another general waiting room recently, waiting for my first visit with another specialist—the medical oncologist who will follow me for next five years. There were eighteen people there, many of them about to have chemotherapy infusion treatments.

Most people sat by themselves, since COVID rules mandate that unless there is a physical or cognitive reason to have a companion, the cancer patients must walk in on their own while their loved ones wait in the parking lot. So there we sat, in our 6-feet-apart, socially distanced bubbles. One person was younger than me; most were quite a bit older. One man was in a wheelchair and on oxygen. He smiled at me as I sat down near him.

And just as I took my seat, a ringtone blared out on someone’s cell phone from The Temptations—“I’ve got sunshine…” And without missing a beat, more than half of the group instantly started singing along: “…on a cloudy day. When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May…”

Everyone started laughing. A breath of levity in what could easily be so somber an environment. I don’t think that would have happened if this hadn’t been a group of people who saw themselves as a community. But because it was, there was a precious moment of shared laughter that lightened the load for everyone in the room.