Thoughtful Kindness I used to precept medical trainees in Ambulatory Palliative Care clinic. Once, a Resident relayed a patient request to me. I don’t remember the details. The patient could have been asking for a medication for pain or anxiety, or they could have been requesting an unnecessary lab test or x-ray. We had a […]
Writing Every Day The word journal comes from the Latin diurnal which means daily. I’ve already covered Dailiness under my D post, but exploring the derivation of the root -jour- brings me to enticing words. Words like adjourn (to suspend a meeting to a future day), sojourn (a temporary stay), journeyman (someone who does
(An excerpt from my memoir-in-progress) The Hospice Medical Director role gave me an excuse to bring poetry into my work as a physician. I selected a poem to begin every weekly meeting, sometimes one of my own. One day I read a poem by Mark Doty, “The Embrace,” and I looked up to see
I Make My Team Cry Read More »
Long Term Benefits How has writing a memoir helped me heal? First, I’ve been able to turn my former self into a protagonist in a story, a flawed but hopefully likable character. I can empathize with her. I can slap my forehead and say Doh! Why is she doing this? This is a bad decision.
Congratulations! You found some writing time in your busy day. How do you move into writing mode? How do you call in the muse? Some of the things I’ve written about in the A-to-Z posts help.
G is for Get Ready Read More »
Once, I did a freewrite at my local library, filling three pages in my notebook. Most of what I wrote I threw away, but at the bottom of the third page, I wrote about a white noise machine in my clinic. I recognized a spark there, some kind of juice that I wanted to
F is for Freewrite Read More »
Several song snippets go through my head as I ponder E words: Each, Every, Ether, Equanimity, Emotions, Earworm. “Each moment is different from any before it. Each moment is different. It’s now.” That comes from an Incredible String Band song, a British progressive folk band from the 1960s. I hear Van Morrison singing “Everyone,”
And for Darjeeling, because I drink a cup of tea every day when I transition into my afternoon writing time. And Differential, as in the infinitesimally small change described in calculus, dx/dt, a moment so small that it might be described as a snapshot in time along the curve of a function. Daily, because
In August 1985, I was 31 years old, about to enter medical school. I was bored, bored to the point of feeling stressed by my boredom. I took a job to earn some money until school began. It was a sales job, and I hated it. During the launch of a new product, a
C is for Creativity Read More »
Muscle Energy During my training as an osteopathic physician, I learned a technique called Muscle Energy. It’s a gentle way of working on the musculoskeletal system that brings it back into balance. The technique is simple, and the results are magical, but they are explained by the science of muscle physiology. The technique begins
