“You are like family,” I said to Morgen Reynolds last year at the Florida Storytelling Festival in Mt Dora, Florida. “I see you once a year for a reunion.” That sounds a little odd at first, but I was expressing the comfort of seeing someone you know after such a long time. We have listened …Read More
Author: Dr. Joel Ying, MD
Physician-Educator-Storyteller. Integrating the power of story into medicine, healing sessions, workshops, speaking and performance.
Dancing through the Years
As the 2010’s comes to a close, it’s natural to look back on what has moved us. Here’s a fun video review of the evolution of dance from 1950 to 2019. From Madonna to Michael Jackson, from the Macarena to Gangnam style, music inspires dance … sometimes in crazy ways. When the boredom sets in …Read More
Hair Love ~ Animated Story
“Life is too short to have boring hair.” Storytelling is a powerful vehicle to convey emotion. Matthew A. Cherry goes beyond words with a short animated film that is virtually silent. “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart” ― Helen …Read More
Holidays ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Holidays by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The holiest of all holidays are thoseKept by ourselves in silence and apart;The secret anniversaries of the heart,When the full river of feeling overflows;–The happy days unclouded to their close;The sudden joys that out of darkness startAs flames from ashes; swift desires that dartLike swallows singing down each wind that blows!White …Read More
Character of the Happy Warrior ~ William Wordsworth
Character of the Happy Warrior ~ by William Wordsworth Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he That every man in arms should wish to be? —It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought: Whose high endeavours are an …Read More
Thanksgiving Day Blessings
God is good.God is great.Let us thank him for our food.Amen. I grew up with this children’s prayer to bless the food that I ate. It’s short and easy to remember. Today, I remember those moments of grace. We joined hands as a family, took a moment out of time to be grateful, and asked …Read More
Can you Exorcise Depression? ~ Andrew Solomon
“Spirits leave me alone to complete the business of my life and know that I’ll never forget you.” Andrew Solomon’s long battle with depression first brought him to traditional Western medicine with medication and counseling. As a writer, this struggle led him to research treatments in other parts of the world. He tells a colorful …Read More
Take Your Medicine Wheel
“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle. That is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in …Read More
Morning Prayer ~ John O’Donohue
Matins ~Morning Prayer Poem by John O’Donohue 1Somewhere, out at the edges, the nightIs turning and the waves of darknessBegin to brighten the shore of dawn The heavy dark falls back to earthAnd the freed air goes wild with light,The heart fills with fresh, bright breathAnd thoughts stir to give birth to color. 2I arise …Read More
I See Dead People ~ Dr. Christopher Kerr
“Medical training is about learning to defy death, when you can’t defy it, deny it, or avoid it.” Dr. Christopher Kerr, MD, found comfort in the avoidance of death until his career path inevitably led him to hospice. As a hospice doctor, he cares for those at the end of life. He has found that …Read More