“What I hadn’t accounted for was how [patients’] stories would be flattened by the pace of the work.”

How becoming a doctor made me a worse listener JAMA March 2020

“I can see, beneath me, the stream we all travel in. Downstream are our own deaths, our spouses’ deaths, our children’s deaths, the deaths of everything on this earth and each of their replacements. Julia is leading, slightly farther ahead, her face draining but illuminated, and she is calling back over her shoulder to tell us what she sees. Practicing medicine allows me to feel my feet in this stream. It helps me to savor my own life, to use my time well, to love, to notice, to forgive.”

Trust Falls JAMA April 2022