One holiday gift-giving season, I got a budgie. I was perhaps eleven years old. I had asked for one of those tiny little birds when I saw them at the pet store. Blue and white, he (or she, I’m not sure) was so cute. I had wanted my own pet bird ever since I had …Read More
Author: Dr. Joel Ying, MD
Physician-Educator-Storyteller. Integrating the power of story into medicine, healing sessions, workshops, speaking and performance.
A Blessing ~ James Wright
Suddenly I realizeThat if I stepped out of my body I would breakInto blossom. ~ James Wright, “A Blessing” from Above the River: The Complete Poems and Selected Prose. A Blessing ~ by James Wright Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass. And the eyes of those two Indian …Read More
Story: Love or Money ~ Joel Ying
There are some stories that you do not really know until you’ve heard it directly from the people that have lived it. Growing up, I knew my parents story of immigration from bits and pieces of overheard conversation, stories gathered second hand told by other relatives, and gaps filled in from similar stories that I …Read More
One Today ~ Richard Blanco
One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,peeking over the Smokies, greeting the facesof the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truthacross the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a storytold by our silent gestures moving behind windows. ~ first stanza from One Today by Richard …Read More
Poem: Lost in Summer ~ Joel Ying
Lost in Summer ~ by Dr. Joel Ying, MD Atlantic waves crashing on the white sand Mid-morning sun already heavy in the sky Fractured shards of light glimmer atop the waves Sea foam like lace hems the shoreline. My nine year old self running into the water Trampling over the delicate froth Leaving the already …Read More
Story: Ninth Night
“Show me the manner in which a Nation or community cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land, and their loyalty to high ideals.” ~ William Ewart Gladstone In this podcast story, I explore the tradition of Ninth …Read More
Transforming Your Life Story
At some point while working full time as a hospitalist doctor nearly two decades ago, I began to feel thin. I remember standing outside leaving a meeting at the home of one of the other doctors. The day was sunny and warm, just before the start of the really hot summer in Florida. The heat …Read More
It’s all in how you read it
This month, FGCU Students went to a middle school afterschool program as part of the Roots of Compassion and Kindness (ROCK) Center. The cafeteria was filled with over 90 middle school kids and 25 college students divided into six different groups for activities that encourage empathy, compassion, and kindness. The college students described it as …Read More
Story: The Graveyard
“Don’t go into the graveyard after dark!” Perhaps like my friend, Janis McCall, you grew up with this warning. But really… is there anything to fear in graveyards? “Personally I have no bone to pick with graveyards,” said Samuel Beckett. However, every story has a reason to be told. This story comes to me from …Read More
Embodied Wisdom
“The head comes up with options, the heart knows what it loves, and the gut makes decisions.” I was at a workshop in Big Sur, California, when I heard these words of distilled wisdom from another student. The magnificent cliffs above the Pacific Ocean punctuated the sentence with the crashing waves. Relaxed from the morning …Read More