Category: Life
We have all thought about what the ideal life would look like. If your idea of a perfect life was a movie, what would the script be like? Perhaps you’ve thought about individual scenes, but what would the total story be? The ideal life will certainly not make itself, and the story will not be told […]
“You… look… MAH-ve-lous!” Billy Crystal would claim in his parody of Fernando Lamas years ago on Saturday Night Live. People began saying it everywhere! I sometimes quip with my patients similarly with “it’s more important to look good than to feel good.” This tongue-in-cheek commentary typically follows a discussion with a woman about the woes of fashionable, but uncomfortable, […]
A few years ago, while standing in my kitchen scanning the cupboards for a compelling snack, I heard the garage door open. A few moments later my teenage son walked through the kitchen with a slight scowl on his face, head bowed, vaguely responding to my greeting. This seemed to have become his general disposition […]
One of Glen Campbell’s greatest hits was “Rhinestone Cowboy.” He could sport snazzy outfits and be outdone only by the likes of Porter Wagoner or Dolly Parton. The bright stage lights would bounce off the performers’ outfits scattering sparkling rays back at the audience and cameras. The performers appeared to be covered in diamonds! However, […]
When we are faced with a decision, we often hear the suggestion to make a list of “pros and cons.” Not a bad idea – but it isn’t always that simple, is it? The decision isn’t always black and white. There are pros and cons on each side of every decision. Instead, consider making a […]
My work as a physician affords me the great privilege of being invited into the most intimate emotional spaces of people’s lives. Often, that invitation is inadvertently extended to me in the course of a conversation. Something honest is stirred and in direct betrayal of the will’s intent, the eyes shift downward, tears well up […]
“Suffering is the tuition you pay for a character degree.” This is a phrase that I have found to be true over and over again. No one escapes suffering in this life. Neither wealth, nor intelligence, nor wisdom, nor physical strength, nor beauty can protect you from it. It knocks differently for each of us, but […]
Several years ago I was evaluating a young woman in her 30s for several complaints that we ultimately agreed were consequences of her obesity. Over the previous 10 years, her weight had more than doubled, transitioning her from a self-described sleek, muscular build of 140 lbs. to a cumbersome 325 lbs. As we began to explore how […]
A few weeks back, I found my attention captured by images on my television screen, my face wet with tears. I had been casually perusing videos on YouTube, when I clicked on a link to a compilation of videos showing soldiers surprising their unexpecting loved ones with their return home from deployment. I was immediately […]
For one sweet holiday we gobble up tiny candy hearts that declare such things as ‘KISS ME,’ ‘YOU’RE SWEET,’ ‘LOVE YOU,’ But, my favorite heart is ‘BE MINE.’ Why? Because it speaks to the human desire we all have of being wanted. This little candy heart with a big message beckons us to let go […]
After years of skiing on our gently sloping backyard hill on what were excessively long, presumably antique skis that we had plucked from a yard sale, my brother Matt and I were finally going skiing on a real mountain. Not only that, we were renting real skis, with real boots (without need for bread bags on our feet for water proofing) […]
A recent statistic was released claiming that 20 percent of children and 40 percent of adults in the US can now be classified as obese. “Oh, please,” you say, “Not another article on the obesity epidemic.” Before you’re tempted to stop reading, this is NOT another how-to article about diet. It’s an article about being — a plea to pause and […]