How do you measure a life? “Life is not measured by the breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away.” I start the hike in essential silence. What is that you say? It is the space of deep introspection where you can still manage to yell out to your friend, “Don’t …Read More
Author: Dr. Joel Ying, MD
Physician-Educator-Storyteller. Integrating the power of story into medicine, healing sessions, workshops, speaking and performance.
To Know the Dark ~ Wendell Berry
To Know the Dark by Wendell Berry To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. I’ve only seen it once, and only by accident. It was …Read More
Release and Renewal ~ Finding Community
One month to go.What do you want to release from 2020? In December of 1979, my parents moved from Jamaica to Florida. Only in retrospect can I look back and honor all that they left behind: the country that they were born in, the close support of family and friends, a business that they had built. However, …Read More
Good Timber ~ Douglas Malloch
Today’s inspiration comes from “The Lumberman’s Poet” as he was affectionately known. Douglas Malloch grew up in Michigan among logging camps and lumber yards. He wrote this poem when he was just a boy. As I scale the mountains and descend into the valleys of life, this poem reminds me that trees (and people) grow …Read More
Attitude of Gratitude ~ Release and Renewal
I am grateful for you. Thank you for your support and encouragement. Every few years, this blog/newsletter undergoes a shift. Here we go again. I feel another one coming. It was more than 5 years ago that I was first captivated by storytelling magic. One person on stage, no props, no special visual effects… just …Read More
Operating Theater
It is a splendor to behold. Hidden in the recessed bowels of the building. Down in the basement. Long halls with windowless rooms. Bright lights. Down here it is always daytime. The operating rooms of the University hospital live in the snaked caverns of the basement. The floors and walls tiled. Industrial cleaners creating a …Read More
Life After Childbirth
In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why? Of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.” “Nonsense,” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What …Read More
The way out is through the window
“The way out is through the window.” The invisible thought ricocheted in my head and came out as a silent whisper. Mr. Peabody was an 73-year-old in the last stages of death. He was comatose, and I was meeting him for the first time. I was taking over his care as the attending doctor for …Read More
Story: The Creator Rests
What does creativity do when it rests? Minor edits? Little revisions? Take this out, add that. It’s all part of the creative process, but sometimes the pieces we take out create wonderful new stories. Here’s a creative 5-minute story that will inspire kids of all ages (like me) by Jill LamedeThe Tintagel Storytellerwww.Lamede.com
Honor Flight, Honoring Veterans
“This has been the most meaningful day of my life,” said one veteran. At the time, he was 100 years old. Honor Flight had brought him to the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. He had been chosen by the group to lay the wreath on the memorial to honor those lives that had …Read More