August 2021

Equanimity

The other morning, as I was listening to the radio on my drive to work, the music was interrupted by an announcer with a stentorian tone: “Severe Storm Warning for Monroe and the Surrounding Counties.” In a matter of just a few more blocks, the weather transformed from docile to frantic. Trees were losing their branches, the wind was howling, leaves were swirling, and the rain was horizontal.

Mindful Practice: Community, Healing and the Long Journey of Medicine

If you want to go fast, go alone
If you want to go far, go together

~African Proverb

Our work in Medicine is not a sprint. It is more like a marathon. We know it requires discipline, commitment, intention, hard work, and stamina. But unlike running a marathon for individual reasons, it is a community activity. And in this time of the Olympics, as nations identify with their teams, our professional communities are similarly teams that provide opportunities for growth and fortitude, as well as for the transformation that is possible as we work through the crises that inevitably arise along the journey, the occasional or not so uncommon dark nights of the soul to borrow from a mystical source.