This spooky Halloween season, I got a chance to perform at Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida, with the cast of “Haunting Tales,” formerly called “Ghosts in the Garden.” Last Friday, the morning was beautiful, but the afternoon brought torrential rains. Will people still come? The organizers talked about cancelling the show. Ninety minutes before the …Read More
Author: Dr. Joel Ying, MD
Physician-Educator-Storyteller. Integrating the power of story into medicine, healing sessions, workshops, speaking and performance.
River Rising: Fake News and Clickbait
“What do you think of this?” she passed me her phone. The text message showed a smart link to an Internet article with the picture of an official making an announcement. “I don’t know,” I said, “Did you read it?” “Yes,” she said. Her voice anxious. “What did it say?” “I only read the message. …Read More
Hurricane Ian ~ I’m OK
“I’m safe. House ok. No flooding in my area. No power. No internet. Cell phone service spotty.” After waking up to a post-apocalyptic scene that I could only imagine from the reports on the radio, I walked a quarter mile down the block to find a place where I could get enough cell phone signal …Read More
A Psalm of Life ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was …Read More
Little Dandelion ~ Soul Growth with Astral Shaman
Story + Meditation = Healing. I met Astral Shaman in a meditation and healing workshop more than a decade ago. I immediately fell in love with his Scottish lilt–the way words sound like song, warm and welcoming, literally music to my ears. As a child, I lost my own Jamaican accent after starting first grade …Read More
Meanest Person Ever
“You are the meanest person ever,” her voice laughs playfully even as she loads all the pre-teen seriousness into the sentence. I pass a large family on the beach. Parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins move like ants around a mound of beach umbrellas to and from the sweetness of the sea. I smile inwardly as …Read More
FGCU Storytelling 2022 – 2023: A New Season
I felt as if something woke up inside of me. That first time that I heard someone tell a story, one person in front of an audience, holding our complete attention, I was so fully captivated that I thought to myself, “I want to be able to do that.” For a moment, my mind took …Read More
This Is Going to Hurt ~ Adam Kay
The double doors burst open breaking the anticipatory silence. The ambulance had called ahead. The paramedics rushed the gurney into the emergency room bay. One person was on the gurney doing chest compressions. One of the other voices yelled, “62-year-old African American female found unresponsive…” As the medical student, I had been prepped by my …Read More
Pushing a Peanut up a Mountain
Have you ever felt like you are pushing a peanut up a mountain? Bill Williams knows how you feel. In 1929, he pushed a peanut up the 14,000 feet of Colorado’s Pike’s Peak Highway… with his nose. Why? For a bet, of course. It took him 22 days, a bag full of peanuts, knee pads, …Read More
Drinking Alone In The Moonlight ~ Li Po
Li Po has been called the god of poetry, but he called himself the god of wine. Born in 701, more than one thousand years ago, during the great cultural flowering of China’s T’ang Dynasty, he wandered across nature’s landscapes and found the spirit of the immortal in his poetry. With more than a thousand …Read More