Wise words from a cartoon kid.

Charlie Brown:  Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?

Linus: Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.

Lights, please.  "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you:  Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.'  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Adventures of the Week

So here I am in Boston... it's cold outside, with occasional little misty snowflakes falling. From my hotel window I can see people skating round and round a little ice rink in the middle of Boston Commons. It looks like one of the scenes from the Christmas villages my grandma sets up on her shelves every year. I wish I had more time to explore the city, see the historical sites... but these interview trips are too short and too packed with interviewing. Maybe someday I'll actually hop on a plane to go somewhere on vacation. And I mean real vacation.Working backwards... in the airport, I saw an iPod vending machine. Absurd enough to comment on. Talk about impulsive shopping.

On the plane, I sat next to a man who is running a marathon in every state. Yesterday was his 11th marathon this year. He said "It sounds crazy, but it's actually a lot easier than I thought it would be." Only 19 more states remaining. Way to go, Michael! But, yes, it is crazy.And one of the major highlights of my week was the 3 hours and 34 minutes that I spent running with one of my favorite people, Miss Anna Winter. We have spent endless hours this fall training for the marathon and I am SO thankful for her and her friendship. I couldn't have done the marathon without her. I'm not going to lie, there were parts of the race that didn't feel good... but we were wearing sequin decorated shirts and were accused of being "far too chipper" for the middle of a marathon. I'll take that. I'd rather be far too chipper than far too glum any day. And now we're "Boston Bound"... making plans for April already!

Misleading me home.

Being on the road is tiring. Fun, yes, at times, but tiring. After driving to Nashville, flying to North Carolina and back to Nashville, driving to Louisville, then Indianapolis, and now Cincinnati... yeah... I'm thankful for my iPod that keeps me company in the car, the dramatic decrease in gas prices (I paid 1.75 yesterday!), a cell phone (though the service throughout the large part of NC, KY, and IN disappointed me at best).

On my way from Louisville to Indiana, I was missing home. Driving along that boring highway, I suddenly came upon an enormous green road sign that said " Memphis--- 7 miles". My heart jumped for a second at the thought of being so close to home... but as those 7 miles passed and I neared "Memphis", I could see that it was just a small Indiana farm town.

Who does that? Who names a town after a city in a different state? It's one thing to have Paris and Milan in Tennessee and Cairo in Illinois, at least there's a whole ocean separating the namesake. But Memphis, Indiana? That's like having a Chicago, Alabama, or a Denver, Missouri. I felt so misled. I was so close to home... yet so very far away.

the power of legacy

As I have sat and listened at the feet of Steve Saint (son of missionary to Ecuadorian Indians and visionary, Nate Saint) and Carl Taylor (son of missionary doctor to the people of India, Hudson Taylor), these past few days, I have been overwhelmed by the importance and power of legacy. God has designed the family structure to not only be a place to grow in love, education, and to be nurtured, but also as a means of inspiratory vision.

There's an incredible impact that parents can have upon their children as they live as servants of the Almighty God and teach them by example that living in faithful obedience leads to the most unexpected and exciting adventures we could ever imagine.

the definition of "casual"

"Casual" made my life a little difficult this week. In attempts to pack for the interview trail, I read back over the emails highlighting the events of each interview experience... "dinner out at a nice restaurant, casual attire", "dinner at one of the resident's houses, attire casual". What does casual mean?

For a guy, casual means khakis and a button up. Period. For a girl, casual just means complicated. Can I wear jeans (or is that too casual), can I wear a dress (or is that too overdone)? What if I just show up in sweaty running clothes? Isn't that casual? Good thing I have ten of these interviews scheduled... maybe by the end of this I can properly define the word "casual".

growing up

Today I had my first real job interview. It's overwhelming to be growing up... and it's overwhelming to look back on all of the people and moments and experiences that have encouraged me along the way. I am thankful for those who have stuck with me through good and bad... through my very long distance adventures in Spain, Brazil, and Ecuador... through exam weeks and applications and studying for the boards... I wish there was something I could do to pay back all of the encouragement and love and support that has been given to me.

I praise the Lord for my sisters, for my mom (who has become one of my best friends), for my dad (who is one of my greatest role models of integrity and hard work), for my dear friends (some so far away, some just around the corner)... but ultimately, I praise the Lord because my roots aren't in a place, or in people, or experiences, but in Christ alone.

I know that wherever this next adventure takes me that I should count it all joy and a blessing that my Lord has allowed me to participate in his work... loving and healing and giving glory to Him. I pray that I remember that as I live and work and play.

exercising my right to vote

today i exercised my right to vote. literally. with too much to do and not enough time, and not being willing to give up some of my precious post-call sleep time, i decided to kill 2 birds with one stone. i ran to my polling place and back. i can't say i was the freshest smelling voter today, but i voted, nonetheless.

fall favorites

1. map my route-- look at a running route from street map or satellite and map it out to make the perfect distance run. anna and i are working on running every street in memphis. kidding... but only sort of. www.usatf.org/routes

2. npr in the early AM-- i judge my "on-timeness" by when the credits come on for the start of "morning edition"... but before the news, they play the reruns of the cooking shows. mmm... dark chocolate mountain desserts and squash with carmelized pecans... sounds so much better than the LeBonheur cafeteria. but i guess i shouldn't complain. it's gourmet compared to The Med cafeteria's "neck-bone Thursdays". and yes, there is ALWAYS a line out the door that day!?

3. G2- gatorade, but with half the sugar, so it doesn't taste like you're drinking syrup.

4. being a kid forever- the older i get, the more i realize that no one ever really acts like a "grown up." and if they do, i don't want to hang out with them.

5. fall leaves- especially the trees that are half- brilliant red, half- green turning yellowish orange. i wouldn't mind if it stayed fall forever, except for the fact that i adore Christmas-time.

I admit, I failed.

I don't know who I think I am... to make a recipe, leave a key ingredient out, and just think "my banana bread always tastes good... it'll work without the baking powder." Mistake. Big mistake. After this failure, Rachel, Giada, and Julia surely will never acknowledge my presence in the cooking world ever again. I basically made a glorified frisbee. It smelled good, but I'm sure with the weight, it would never fly far. And if you caught it, you might break your finger. The other half of the batch was in a loaf pan. It would make a nice brick...for a very sturdy house. Seriously.

But if for the 317th time of making a recipe that always, always turns out wonderful you don't succeed, try try again. It's a good thing I have 3 more brown bananas...

amazing and terrible

I began working in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit on Monday. It is amazing work... to see the sickest of kids on the mend, to see kids with major injuries overcome through miraculous turnarounds, to work with families who care deeply and are devoted to doing everything possible for their children. But it is also straining work... to see kids who've been beaten within an inch of their life by their own parents or caregivers, to do everything possible but not have enough answers to save a child, to feel like I'll never know enough, to go home wishing I could take some of the "unloved" kiddos with me.

"We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes." --Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

finally fall

today it rained and rained and rained. but the rain brought with it some cool fall air... mmm... i love fall. i baked cookies and carved pumpkins and ate roasted pumpkin seeds with some friends and some kids from the neighborhood. they had SO much fun (and so did i!). i think i should just be a kid forever!

Things that have made my week.

1. Blueberry frozen yogurt... tastes better than ice cream and better for you, unless you add crumbled up oatmeal cookie chunks like i do... mmm.
2. Talking to strangers... it's surprisingly easy to make people smile... for example:
-->Recommending the best brownie mix in the grocery store. I'm the unofficial spokeswoman for Ghiradelli's triple chocolate brownies.
-->Making your postman laugh. My postman is missing so many teeth that he looks like a jack-o-lantern when he laughs, which makes me laugh, so it's even more worth it.
-->I made a sandwich for a homeless guy who frequently walks down my street. He was so excited that he gave me a hug and told me not to let the rain get my red suede loafers wet... those shoes- he said- were praising the Lord. As i was walking back inside, he said "you are my Cinderella!"
3. Southwest Airlines... Saved me a bundle on my Nashville-Chicago-Birmingham-Houston-Nashville flight. Know what would make me even more happy? If gas prices keep dropping (for the Memphis-Indy-Cincy-Lexington (to visit Callie)-Smoky Mtns (thanksgiving at the cabin)-Nashville-Memphis driving adventure. Know what would make me incredibly overjoyed? If someone decided to come along with me on my adventures. Traveling the country sounds fun in theory, but it's going to take some LONG books-on-tape to keep me entertained.
4. Scenic tour of Memphis neighborhoods, on foot... thanks to Anna and Sarah, Sunday morning's long run effort was a success. We ran through Binghamton, Evergreen district, Uptown, Downtown, Southbluffs, Beale St (smells awful on a Sunday morning), the Medical district, Central Gardens (where we had stealthfully buried Gatorades in someone's garden!), Cooper-Young, Overton Park, the midtown Greenline, Hein Park, and back to Binghamton. Next week we'll tour the East Memphis neighborhoods, beginning in Highpoint Terrace.

enlightenment

Today I went on my first house call to see a patient. A constant struggle for me has been where to draw the line. How involved should I get in my patient's lives? How much should I let myself connect with them personally and emotionally? But when I left the little apartment, instead of feeling a huge burden, I felt free. I realized that the struggle I was feeling wasn't exactly to figure out how to keep myself distanced...it was to figure out how I can really truly care for people in a "system" that tells me my patients are clients and medicine is just a business.

I know that some choose to practice medicine in a distanced, businesslike, scientific manner. They tell me that connecting with patients, working out difficult social and ethical situations is just going to cost me time and effort that in the end will not be reimbursed by any ICD9 code, insurance, Medicaid... I think it's all worth it though. I think it's worth it to hurt when things don't work out because I know that I tried. I think that my patients are humans and have families and that medicine is more than a "this drug treats that bug" job. I think that social, emotional, spiritual, cultural, financial matters all influence "health" as we know it. And Jesus certainly wasn't reimbursed properly for the healing work He did.

Someone once told me, and I won't soon forget, "If you're going to err, err on the side of love."

20 years later...

Who would have thought that 20 years later we'd be at the same med school and training for a marathon together... I guess a few things have changed:
1. I'm a little taller (sorry Lil Bear).
2. Thankfully, we don't wear those shorts with the elastic waistbands anymore (though they would be pretty comfortable after a big meal).
3. Haven't played a game of Hi-Ho Cherry-O or streaked around the block for a long while.
Today's shout out is yours Anna Banana. (And here's to many more years of sock tan-lines.)

daydreamin'

Here I am with Step2 six days away...and I don't want to study. It's not the actual concept of studying that's giving me a hard time, but the alternative to studying.

The problem was the way I started my month off for studying. The plan was to spend 2.5 days out in the Smoky Mountains at the cabin with my Mom. Let's just say, those 2.5 days easily turned into 8 days of enjoying the beginning of the leaves changing, hiking, sitting on the porch reading in the evenings... it didn't take much convincing to get me to stay. The cool mornings, the sunny days, and the close encounters with bears during my long runs through the rolling hills surrounding Cades Cove. You can't beat it.

The problem wasn't even those extra days I spent out east... it's just that I want to quit studying now and go back! Post-test hiking trip anyone?

Sing Along with John and Barack.

In the midst of a downright frustrating effort to arrive at Election Day with my mind made up... I was introduced a wonderful, informative, and incredibly satirical musical display of genius. Check it out. It'll have you singing along, dancing, and wishing you had grasshopper legs to leap along with Obama and the animals...and still wondering who indeed you'll vote for...http://www.jibjab.com/originals/time_for_some_campaignin.

weekend

To spice up a few weeks of studying for Step 2, I've been trying to throw in the occasional excitement...hanging up my hammock, for instance, was the highlight of Friday. Seriously. Can you possibly think of anything better than the perfect fall day swinging in a hammock on the front porch? (I think it might have been just a bit better if I subtracted the step2 study book and the IceCream truck that plays a scary "polka" song and yells "Hello..oo..oo").


Yesterday's fun event was going to an Indian festival with my friend Anju. Everyone was dressed so elegant and colorfully and we danced the night away. I'll let the pictures tell the rest...

everyday...

So I thought my blog career had ended forever when I returned from Ecuador... But I recently realized that my life is exciting EVERYDAY! I guess I was inspired by my sister Laura's witty daily blog, and some crazy happenings in my "relaxing" vacay to the Smoky Mountains last week (more to come on that)...So, I may not be reporting on snake bite victims flown in from the jungle or babies delivered on the floor of the hospital, it may not even seem exciting to anyone else, but I take joy in having realized that my life is a great adventure everyday, at home or abroad...