“Don’t throw away your suffering. Touch your suffering. Face it directly, and your joy will become deeper. You know that suffering and joy are both impermanent. Learn the art of cultivating joy. Practice like this, and you come to the third turning of the Third Noble Truth, the “Realization” that suffering and happiness are not…
Tag: death
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Last night my husband and I were searching for a movie to watch and I found this title on iTunes. I had never heard of it, but it seemed to have great reviews, and given my weird interest in topics around death and dying, I thought it would be an interesting movie. It ended up…
Dos and Don’ts of Dealing with Death
In many parts of the world, people understand the natural cycle of life and death. In America, it seems to be the opposite. Everyone expects immortality because of the vast scientific advances and research being done. It’s almost as if people feel entitled to living forever at any cost. But this way of thinking needs…
The Dangers of Uninformed Autonomy
“There is a dignity in dying that doctors should not dare to deny.” [ Anonymous] Today, a patient I have been helping to take care of died. I and the medical team knew that she would die soon, but for the past 18 days, we have been sticking little bandaids on various components of her…
Three
Being a medical student in North Philadelphia and then going on to residency in New Orleans have shaped my view of medicine and the vast injustices people face. Most of my clinical rotations in medical school dealt with the underserved and uninsured population. These are hands down the most challenging patients to treat for reasons…
pen . paper . storm 