Put it in Perspective.

We had a teeny-tiny dusting of snow yesterday and the temperature has fallen below zero, thus it's time for winter coats (going to dig them out this weekend), peppermint hot cocoa (recipe to come), and Xmas music (it's been fueling my studying lately). What a lovely time of year.

It is also the perfect time of year to reflect on what really matters. We can get stressed-out by all of the organizing, engulfed by the consumerism, frustrated by bickering between family, we can feel weighed down (both literally and figuratively) by all the food, booze, and sweets, and feel annoyed by all of the traveling. It is a tricky time of year to balance peacefulness with all of the associated craziness.

This week I had a touching talk by one of my Clinical Medicine profs. The type of talk that puts everything into perspective. It wasn't specifically related to the holidays, but thought the talk was a nice reminder as we enter this busy, yet beautiful, time of year.

All week we've been learning about hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, angina (heart pain), and heart attacks. Not light material, that's for sure. When we finished the hypertension section, the professor took the time to dedicate that particular lecture to her father. Why her father? Because he died from hypertension, the silent killer. (It is called the silent killer because hypertension can slowly kill, by destroying main organs in the body, but I'll save that explanation for another post). She said that it is a real gift to have living parents. You are still a child and that is a wonderful feeling. This professor, who is middle-aged, cried a little in front of my class as she described the death of her father; she was a daddy's girl. She urged us to treasure our time as "children" and to take care of our parents. It is my hope that through my training at CCNM, that I will be able to better take care of my parents (and hopefully my entire family too). On the flip side, I bet the parents behind each of my classmates is thinking the same thing: "my kid's in med school, I'm going to live forever!" :P

Have a lovely Friday, my lovely readers.