Article/Blog Archives:
BELONGING
I look out the window at a
fenced area where I once
had a plant nursery.
I nurtured and peddled new trees that
I thought should live here.
But, the weed, vine, and the pine ...
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
Trying to make sense of the world these days
Could mess up your mind and soul
So many factions at work
None talk, communicate or are in control
Promises broken, before they are made.
Coffee was a dime a cup, just yesterday, and
Now, it’s not worth breaking a fiver for. ...
AMERICA’S PROMISE
Are these our dark days of history
The news sure paints it that way
Though our young keep trying
Our allies and politicians
Close the doors to any headway
It’s Veterans Day, yet still ...
MERRY-GO-ROUND OF HISTORY
Virgil was horrified, when he was forced out of his home of thirty years, by the government who confiscated it and gave it to retiring politicians and soldiers returning from war.
Though they were a family of farm workers; ...
AUTUMN MARIACHI 23
Fall is now well advanced and the foliage on the mountain side sings in the golden colors of autumn. In my home state of New Mexico, it's Balloon Fiesta time and hundreds of balloonists from around the world are here to show off their flying talent and colorful balloons. The last several years, the event was either cancelled or scaled down due to Covid. So this year the enthusiasm of us all is on full display with an immense showing of the balloonists and the masses. The weather, too, has been cooperating for the most part, to the delight of everyone.
In the streets, the aroma of roasting green chili peppers fill the air ...
NOBILITY OF NOBEL PRIZES
The Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and economics, are awarded this week. Interesting, how telecommunication tools have played an important role in achieving many of these science outcomes.
The Nobel Prize for medicine, for example, given to Katalin Karikó from Hungry and Drew Weissman from the US, for their discoveries that led to the development of an effective vaccine against Covid-19.
The Nobel Prize for physics was shared by three scientists; Pierre Agostini, a French experimental physicist, ...
NOSTALGIA
A letter arrived the other day
From an old friend,
Saying that she was walking by a pier
And thought of me and that she missed me.
She said that the cold and foggy day
Was what she remembered me by
And how we went back to my place and
I played the blues for her on my old gramophone. ...
THE AFTERNOON OF OUR HISTORY
The 78th UN General Assembly is meeting in NY this week. The problems and the solutions facing us are obvious, old and require cooperation and reconciliation. But the aggressors of today, all seem to be victims of the past who have carved a piece of this world by force or chance for themselves and are unwilling or unable to part with any of it. Our shrinking world, however, is forcing the pieces to overlap, triggering further clashes. Ironically, today is the UN International Day of Peace. ...
LOSS OF A GREAT STATESMAN
Our nation lost a great patriot and statesman last week. Bill Richardson was the diplomat’s diplomat. He was at ease talking to the great leaders of the world as he was to anyone in the street.
I met Bill Richardson when he was first running for the US Congress in the early 1980s. I was working the ER at our hospital in Taos, NM, when he and one other person, arrived there.
I was caring for a young patient when one of the ER nurses informed me that a congressman was there to meet us. ...
WANDERING AND WONDERING
On a hot summer night, a long time ago
I found myself walking across the city to escape the heat.
In the store windows, displays were inviting and mannequins smiling
A shoe store reminded me that I needed a new pair.
A jewelry store displayed only empty boxes of earrings, bracelets and watches.
The shiny goods that exhibited their allure in the day
Were safely locked in the back.
Wandering on, I found myself in an old part of town, ...
MAYBE?
News that’s sold, swirling
Spinning and whirling, hitting hard
Rotating tentacles of opinions
Views and thoughts.
Do we see the problems only
In our sobriety? ...
IDENTITY
One of the most contentious sentiments among people around the world is the matter of their ethnic and racial genetic purity and originality. Many races abhor the thought of genetic diversity. Proudly claiming the purity of their race, nationality and bloodline. History is filled with stories of atrocities performed under the pretense of preserving one’s race. However, today’s science of DNA studies reveals our inherent composition to be anything but unique or pure.
While serving in the US Air Force and stationed in RAF Lakenheath, England, I had the opportunity to travel to Scotland ...
BEWARE THE LIONS!
On a nature documentary, awhile back, a couple of male zebras were shown fighting over their territory. They were so engrossed in fighting each other that did not notice lions stalking them and ended up losing their lives.
The new and ongoing military and political aggression around the world, reminds me so much of that grim and egotistic encounter. The most dangerous and life-threatening issue in our world today, is climate change. Yet many world leaders ...
The Mapuche knowledge
We’ve been struggling to make sense of all that is happening in our world today, only to find ourselves spinning in the merry-go-round of excuses and blames. In this search for a rationale, one wonders how we got to this point, and realize that our information highway has sent us so far off course that we are hopelessly lost in this jungle of data. ...
I AM BECAUSE YOU ARE!
“I am because you are! You are because we are! A person is a person through others.” African Ubuntu proverb.
“Quality of Ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them.” Desmond Tutu
Ubuntu makes us aware of our responsibility to others, especially to the vulnerable among us. But perhaps more importantly, makes us aware of our responsibility to the world around us, our environment. The understanding that our very existence depends on the nature around us, as we are an undividable part of each other. ...
LITTLE GREAT MEMORIES
Life is an accumulation of memories. Memories of experiences amassed throughout years of work and play. Some, life changing and profound, others, whimsical and fanciful. All said and done, though, often it is the small and minor incidents in life that leave a lasting impression.
Lake Powell is a large man-made lake along the Colorado River, in the hot dry deserts of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. Rainfall is rare and far between. A few years ago, we rented a houseboat and spent a week exploring and sightseeing the many canyons and gorges, filled with the water of the lake and accessible only by boat. It was late summer and we were expecting a hot trip down the lake. However, we were pleasantly surprised when a rare summer storm gave us cloud cover and a much welcoming rain. ...
WHAT FUTURE AWAITS
We’re on the far side of school
A new life awaiting and soon
All efforts to get paid
Song of the future serenade.
A dream has been fulfilled
And a perfect life to build
Yet outstretched hands await
To steal the future at the gate. ...
'The DO’ review.
Thank you, Dr. Waters, and The DO (Journal of the American Osteopathic Association), for reviewing this book.
Dr. Waters’ observation of the core message of this book is a testament to its importance, especially for our students.
You can read the full review in this week’s The DO. As Dr. Waters thoughtfully puts it:
“…(Ghadimi) provides dozens of heartfelt reflections on what is central to everything we do – the simple act of caring for another person.
I was struck by the unique voice of each one (vignette, essay) even though the subjects are many and varied. …They’re all personal observations, steeped in the experience of a long career in patient care.”
MEANING OF LIFE?
“I am going to venture that the man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures, and acknowledging unity with the universe of things was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization.”
Luther Standing Bear (1868? - 1939)
Oglala Sioux chief
I find it fascinating that such enlightenment filled the mind of many scholars, philosophers, thinkers and intellectuals throughout history. But I don’t think that any of them envisioned that all that thinking and philosophizing would bring us to the world of today...
MUSIC OF HOPE
As music is a universal healer
Of all that ails us, our troublers
Of all that weighs down our spirit
And makes the heart heavy with pain.
No matter what the affliction
Or what wind blows it in
All can get stopped by a note ...
THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE
It was late in the evening on a miserable night with a very thick fog covering everything. I was stationed at the USAF Hospital in Lakenheath, England, and working the ER that night. We were dealing with the victims of a bad head on collision, on the notoriously narrow English country roads.
What made this night different enough that, fifty years later I still remember it, was the ...
MARCH IS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
My life in medicine started as a young boy. I was brought up by my grandmother, who was a powerful curandera. Though she was practically illiterate, her knowledge of home remedies, botany, and common-sense healthcare was well known and she was highly respected. Growing in her care, I learned much just by watching and often helping her.
As many who have read my book: Practicing From the Heart in the Age of Technology can attest, I have high respect for women of medicine. Many stories in my book are of experiences working with them around the world ...
GATEWAYS OF INFINITY
In the vastness of the West
Among the standing sentinels of rock and stone
Numerous arches, carved by wind and water
Through eons of time, have built gateways
To eternities of space and time itself.
THE HARDEST JOB YOU’LL LOVE
Of smoky skies and shaken land
Such is the destiny at hand
For all, who wonder of our faith
Of today, tomorrow, and life's prospect...
Wow your patient
Like a high wire trapeze swinging
Fearless from stand to stand
Listen to the concerns
And confidently traverse the
Possibilities till you land
Emphatically on the solution
Of your patient's problem ...
A NEW YEAR RESOLUTION
The political atmosphere of the day demands clarity as we enter the new year. The world in 2023 will be preoccupied with many regional and international problems. In Europe, the Russia/Ukraine war shock of 2022 reverberates. Many European countries looking to the US for answers, are disillusioned by our polarized and distrusting political parties. The ongoing chaos in Brazil is...
MY TREE CASTLE
There is a treehouse in our backyard
I do not know who built it
As to my recollection it was always there
I do recall a day when I smashed my thumb
Trying to hammer a nail into the floor ...
EXCITING FIFA
FIFA or the World Cup is usually held in the summer. But due to the location of the event - this year in Qatar - it was moved to December. Qatar is on the south side of the Persian Gulf and the northeast side of the Arabian Peninsula where it is known as ‘God’s Anvil,’ as was said in the movie: Lawrence of Arabia. The formidable winds from North Africa, further heat up as they cross this scorching barren land. ...
IT’S A WONDERFUL WORLD
With the cold weather, we limit our exposure and shelter in, isolating ourselves from the elements. As we celebrate this holiday season of customs and beliefs, let’s not overlook the nature around us.
On an unusually warm day awhile back, my wife and I were hiking a mountain trail behind our house. Even the blue jays and chipmunks seemed dumbfounded by the heat. I was leaning on my walking staff, lost in the magic of the day. My wife, walking a few passes ahead, suddenly stopped, turned and whispered; "We are not alone!" pointing to the side of the trail. ...
RECIDIVISM
When I was appointed to the NM Medical Board, it was winter and my first attendance was the December meeting. A cold front and an associated early winter snow storm the previous night, caused havoc for my morning 65-mile drive to the state capital for the meeting. I ashamedly arrived an hour late for my first board meeting. To my relief, I learned that two other board members making the same trip had not arrived yet either. This is significant for this article, as the member’s tardiness allowed a lengthy discussion by the members present about a complaint received by the Board on a particular practitioner. ...
A THANKSGIVING PRAYER
Oh Great Creator
Whose voice I hear in the wind and running waters
Whose beauty I see in flowers and the setting sun
Whose breath I feel in all living creatures
Whose warmth I sense in the heart of my children
Myself, my parents and their parents before them. ...
IMMIGRANTS AND ELECTIONS
Elections are over, some have won
Others, lost
All the changes and nots
Affect many, but none more than us.
In times like these, when uncertainties abound
The nights are long, doubts and fear cry loud ...
VETERANS DAY
It's Veterans Day. So we salute all veterans.
As a veteran myself, I truly appreciate their service to our country and people. But it is saddening how some of our veterans are treated. In the last twenty years, more than 30,000 active duty personnel and veterans have died by suicide - compared to the 7,057 killed in combat in the same 20 year period. The US is number 22 in the veteran suicide rate in the world - this is appalling and unforgivable.
OF SEABISCUIT AND OTHER UNLIKELY WINNERS
It was on November 1st 1938, that the racing horse Seabiscuit, made history winning against War Admiral.
Seabiscuit was small and ugly, his legs were crooked, and he injured often. He was named "sea biscuit" a hard bread eaten by sailors, because of his undesirability. It was during the Great Depression, and people needed their spirit lifted by a winner ...
Night of the witches
This Halloween article has been a favorite of our readers, as many who work the ER, relate to the chaotic nature of such an evening, and so we decided to run it one more year. ENJOY!
-------------------------------------
Awhile back, I had the fortune or the misfortune of working the ER on Halloween night, which happened to fall on Friday. At the time, I was living in a small but very multicultural town in Northern New Mexico. The night turned to be wackier than any of us expected. Of-course the usual, Friday night crowd kept us busy with drunkenness, bar brawls, car accidents, sniffling noses, and the standard medical incidents. But the unusual was what made it, well, rather memorable.
Autumn's Lullaby
Come o nature of autumn cool
Rest your head upon the golden leaves
Your fruitful toll of summer, fulfilled
With the sun, soil, and
Water, to the life giving seeds
Grown to nurture man and beast.
HEY DOC
On a cold and dreary night, long ago in New York, after a long and arduous day of working in the South Bronx, I was going home on the subway. I was surprised, when for the third time, I heard someone say; Hey doc, how is it going?
I was so tired that I had not noticed the pertinence of the question, till the third time. Amazed, I asked the man sitting next to me: How do you know I am a doctor?
"Your stethoscope." He said, pointing to my neck.
OF NEANDERTHAL DNA & ENTANGLEMENT THEORY
The UN General Assembly brought hundreds of leaders and policymakers from around the world to New York for a couple of weeks. I found this year's session very disappointing. Many talked, yet little of substance was discussed, as it seemed that blame-placing and finger-pointing was the only thing on the agenda ...
On a positive note, the Nobel Prize Committee is meeting right now and some interesting people are awarded this year's prizes:
MEMORY OF A FALL DAY
Fading or faded, the memory of a fall day, no matter how great
Slips away slowly, yet leaves an impression of the unforgettable
Much like a one-night affair of long ago, with that special stranger
Though love has since, followed with all kinds of specials
That one memory, lingers on and shows her head
At all the right and wrong places.
THOTH'S CALENDAR
Interesting thing, calendars. It is one of the ingenious inventions of mankind, that we use without regard to its origin or makeup. The hieroglyphics discovered in caves, tombs, pyramids, and stone monuments around the world, reveals its origin to be tens of thousands of years old. One such calendar of interest is the Ancient Egyptian Thoth Calendar,
UNMINDFUL OF TIME
Out of the nature that surrounds
And the world that turns around
Day and night set the mode
To work or rest when it's sound.
Time works to nature's need ...
LONGING
Reminiscence of bygone days, memories of what (once) was. Nostalgia need not be for long ago or far away, sometimes one can feel longing for something quite recent. Though my fishing trip just happened, I desire for its peace still. ...
THE OLD AND THE NEW
A documentary starts by showing a small caravan of six camels and four men walking across the hot sands of Mauritania in West Africa. The hooves of the camels and sandals of men displace the dry sand with ...
SUMMER HOPE
Expectations of summer
Hot days, green pastures
Lazy afternoons
Firefly evenings
Dreams of cold winter nights.
A QUESTION OF QUESTIONS
There is a question
Unanswered for centuries and millennia
That has left us bewildered.
Scholars and prophets have asked
All for naught
The Declaration of our independence
Monday is America's Independence Day, our birthday and anniversary as a nation. We should be celebrating it joyously. Yet in the face of all that is happening around us, it may be difficult to celebrate anything, while we are under attack from within as well as without.
PRACTICING MEDICINE ABOVE THE CLOUDS
A colleague, returning from three years of work in Chile, talks of the magic of practicing medicine in the villages of the Andes. "My clinic", says he, "could not be reached by any means but foot, burros or llamas."
OF FLAG, FATHER, AND NOBEL
Tuesday was Flag Day. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress of the United States adopted the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States. And next Sunday is Father's Day, to celebrate and honor our fathers. Just as a flag raises the
SILENCE OF THE ASS
The total disconnect between many politicians and leaders of the world and their constituents leave many of us bewildered. So much so that the disconnect itself has become news and limitless stock for comedians. It brings to mind an old proverb:
LOST HUMANITY?
Like thousands of others, I watched the movie 2001 - a space odyssey, in 1968. And was awe struck, spellbound, and hopeful for a promising tomorrow.
MEMORIAL DAY
In the face of recent calamitous events, my heart and mind are numb to the violence and brutality of all that is occurring in our country and the world.
COMMENCEMENT
Dressed in your best, you wait. Pressed gowns adorn anxious bodies, caps on, tassels hanging.
It's graduation and expectation day.
SPRING TEASE
Spring, she is a teaser!
With her tormenting winds, she plays with man and nature alike.
POWWOW
The Gathering of Nations Powwow, an annual festivity of the Native Americans and indigenous from around the world, is held
in April, in New Mexico. A celebration of cultures to honor the traditions of ancestors by reflecting, praying, dancing, and singing.
CHOLLA'S ADVISE
Rising seas, hurricanes, tornadoes, drought, floods and fires. Epidemics, wars, refugees, homelessness and famine.
Nature and history are screaming alarms, is anyone listening?
THE HOMELESS GYPSY
I met a man in Marrakesh, the story goes, who claimed to be a homeless gypsy.
His family and in fact entire clan had been wiped out by the war.
ALL THE KIND PEOPLE
A clap of thunder, this morning
Awakened me with a scare
GARDEN OF LIES AND DELIGHT
Waiting for a train
In a drizzling rain
BELONGING
I look out the window at a
fenced area where I once
had a plant nursery.
I nurtured and peddled new trees that
I thought should live here.
But, the weed, vine, and the pine ...
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
Trying to make sense of the world these days
Could mess up your mind and soul
So many factions at work
None talk, communicate or are in control
Promises broken, before they are made.
Coffee was a dime a cup, just yesterday, and
Now, it’s not worth breaking a fiver for. ...
AMERICA’S PROMISE
Are these our dark days of history
The news sure paints it that way
Though our young keep trying
Our allies and politicians
Close the doors to any headway
It’s Veterans Day, yet still ...
MERRY-GO-ROUND OF HISTORY
Virgil was horrified, when he was forced out of his home of thirty years, by the government who confiscated it and gave it to retiring politicians and soldiers returning from war.
Though they were a family of farm workers; ...
AUTUMN MARIACHI 23
Fall is now well advanced and the foliage on the mountain side sings in the golden colors of autumn. In my home state of New Mexico, it's Balloon Fiesta time and hundreds of balloonists from around the world are here to show off their flying talent and colorful balloons. The last several years, the event was either cancelled or scaled down due to Covid. So this year the enthusiasm of us all is on full display with an immense showing of the balloonists and the masses. The weather, too, has been cooperating for the most part, to the delight of everyone.
In the streets, the aroma of roasting green chili peppers fill the air ...
NOBILITY OF NOBEL PRIZES
The Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and economics, are awarded this week. Interesting, how telecommunication tools have played an important role in achieving many of these science outcomes.
The Nobel Prize for medicine, for example, given to Katalin Karikó from Hungry and Drew Weissman from the US, for their discoveries that led to the development of an effective vaccine against Covid-19.
The Nobel Prize for physics was shared by three scientists; Pierre Agostini, a French experimental physicist, ...
NOSTALGIA
A letter arrived the other day
From an old friend,
Saying that she was walking by a pier
And thought of me and that she missed me.
She said that the cold and foggy day
Was what she remembered me by
And how we went back to my place and
I played the blues for her on my old gramophone. ...
THE AFTERNOON OF OUR HISTORY
The 78th UN General Assembly is meeting in NY this week. The problems and the solutions facing us are obvious, old and require cooperation and reconciliation. But the aggressors of today, all seem to be victims of the past who have carved a piece of this world by force or chance for themselves and are unwilling or unable to part with any of it. Our shrinking world, however, is forcing the pieces to overlap, triggering further clashes. Ironically, today is the UN International Day of Peace. ...
LOSS OF A GREAT STATESMAN
Our nation lost a great patriot and statesman last week. Bill Richardson was the diplomat’s diplomat. He was at ease talking to the great leaders of the world as he was to anyone in the street.
I met Bill Richardson when he was first running for the US Congress in the early 1980s. I was working the ER at our hospital in Taos, NM, when he and one other person, arrived there.
I was caring for a young patient when one of the ER nurses informed me that a congressman was there to meet us. ...
WANDERING AND WONDERING
On a hot summer night, a long time ago
I found myself walking across the city to escape the heat.
In the store windows, displays were inviting and mannequins smiling
A shoe store reminded me that I needed a new pair.
A jewelry store displayed only empty boxes of earrings, bracelets and watches.
The shiny goods that exhibited their allure in the day
Were safely locked in the back.
Wandering on, I found myself in an old part of town, ...
MAYBE?
News that’s sold, swirling
Spinning and whirling, hitting hard
Rotating tentacles of opinions
Views and thoughts.
Do we see the problems only
In our sobriety? ...
IDENTITY
One of the most contentious sentiments among people around the world is the matter of their ethnic and racial genetic purity and originality. Many races abhor the thought of genetic diversity. Proudly claiming the purity of their race, nationality and bloodline. History is filled with stories of atrocities performed under the pretense of preserving one’s race. However, today’s science of DNA studies reveals our inherent composition to be anything but unique or pure.
While serving in the US Air Force and stationed in RAF Lakenheath, England, I had the opportunity to travel to Scotland ...
BEWARE THE LIONS!
On a nature documentary, awhile back, a couple of male zebras were shown fighting over their territory. They were so engrossed in fighting each other that did not notice lions stalking them and ended up losing their lives.
The new and ongoing military and political aggression around the world, reminds me so much of that grim and egotistic encounter. The most dangerous and life-threatening issue in our world today, is climate change. Yet many world leaders ...
The Mapuche knowledge
We’ve been struggling to make sense of all that is happening in our world today, only to find ourselves spinning in the merry-go-round of excuses and blames. In this search for a rationale, one wonders how we got to this point, and realize that our information highway has sent us so far off course that we are hopelessly lost in this jungle of data. ...
I AM BECAUSE YOU ARE!
“I am because you are! You are because we are! A person is a person through others.” African Ubuntu proverb.
“Quality of Ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them.” Desmond Tutu
Ubuntu makes us aware of our responsibility to others, especially to the vulnerable among us. But perhaps more importantly, makes us aware of our responsibility to the world around us, our environment. The understanding that our very existence depends on the nature around us, as we are an undividable part of each other. ...
LITTLE GREAT MEMORIES
Life is an accumulation of memories. Memories of experiences amassed throughout years of work and play. Some, life changing and profound, others, whimsical and fanciful. All said and done, though, often it is the small and minor incidents in life that leave a lasting impression.
Lake Powell is a large man-made lake along the Colorado River, in the hot dry deserts of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. Rainfall is rare and far between. A few years ago, we rented a houseboat and spent a week exploring and sightseeing the many canyons and gorges, filled with the water of the lake and accessible only by boat. It was late summer and we were expecting a hot trip down the lake. However, we were pleasantly surprised when a rare summer storm gave us cloud cover and a much welcoming rain. ...
WHAT FUTURE AWAITS
We’re on the far side of school
A new life awaiting and soon
All efforts to get paid
Song of the future serenade.
A dream has been fulfilled
And a perfect life to build
Yet outstretched hands await
To steal the future at the gate. ...
'The DO’ review.
Thank you, Dr. Waters, and The DO (Journal of the American Osteopathic Association), for reviewing this book.
Dr. Waters’ observation of the core message of this book is a testament to its importance, especially for our students.
You can read the full review in this week’s The DO. As Dr. Waters thoughtfully puts it:
“…(Ghadimi) provides dozens of heartfelt reflections on what is central to everything we do – the simple act of caring for another person.
I was struck by the unique voice of each one (vignette, essay) even though the subjects are many and varied. …They’re all personal observations, steeped in the experience of a long career in patient care.”
MEANING OF LIFE?
“I am going to venture that the man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures, and acknowledging unity with the universe of things was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization.”
Luther Standing Bear (1868? - 1939)
Oglala Sioux chief
I find it fascinating that such enlightenment filled the mind of many scholars, philosophers, thinkers and intellectuals throughout history. But I don’t think that any of them envisioned that all that thinking and philosophizing would bring us to the world of today...
MUSIC OF HOPE
As music is a universal healer
Of all that ails us, our troublers
Of all that weighs down our spirit
And makes the heart heavy with pain.
No matter what the affliction
Or what wind blows it in
All can get stopped by a note ...
THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE
It was late in the evening on a miserable night with a very thick fog covering everything. I was stationed at the USAF Hospital in Lakenheath, England, and working the ER that night. We were dealing with the victims of a bad head on collision, on the notoriously narrow English country roads.
What made this night different enough that, fifty years later I still remember it, was the ...
MARCH IS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
My life in medicine started as a young boy. I was brought up by my grandmother, who was a powerful curandera. Though she was practically illiterate, her knowledge of home remedies, botany, and common-sense healthcare was well known and she was highly respected. Growing in her care, I learned much just by watching and often helping her.
As many who have read my book: Practicing From the Heart in the Age of Technology can attest, I have high respect for women of medicine. Many stories in my book are of experiences working with them around the world ...
GATEWAYS OF INFINITY
In the vastness of the West
Among the standing sentinels of rock and stone
Numerous arches, carved by wind and water
Through eons of time, have built gateways
To eternities of space and time itself.
THE HARDEST JOB YOU’LL LOVE
Of smoky skies and shaken land
Such is the destiny at hand
For all, who wonder of our faith
Of today, tomorrow, and life's prospect...
Wow your patient
Like a high wire trapeze swinging
Fearless from stand to stand
Listen to the concerns
And confidently traverse the
Possibilities till you land
Emphatically on the solution
Of your patient's problem ...
A NEW YEAR RESOLUTION
The political atmosphere of the day demands clarity as we enter the new year. The world in 2023 will be preoccupied with many regional and international problems. In Europe, the Russia/Ukraine war shock of 2022 reverberates. Many European countries looking to the US for answers, are disillusioned by our polarized and distrusting political parties. The ongoing chaos in Brazil is...
MY TREE CASTLE
There is a treehouse in our backyard
I do not know who built it
As to my recollection it was always there
I do recall a day when I smashed my thumb
Trying to hammer a nail into the floor ...
EXCITING FIFA
FIFA or the World Cup is usually held in the summer. But due to the location of the event - this year in Qatar - it was moved to December. Qatar is on the south side of the Persian Gulf and the northeast side of the Arabian Peninsula where it is known as ‘God’s Anvil,’ as was said in the movie: Lawrence of Arabia. The formidable winds from North Africa, further heat up as they cross this scorching barren land. ...
IT’S A WONDERFUL WORLD
With the cold weather, we limit our exposure and shelter in, isolating ourselves from the elements. As we celebrate this holiday season of customs and beliefs, let’s not overlook the nature around us.
On an unusually warm day awhile back, my wife and I were hiking a mountain trail behind our house. Even the blue jays and chipmunks seemed dumbfounded by the heat. I was leaning on my walking staff, lost in the magic of the day. My wife, walking a few passes ahead, suddenly stopped, turned and whispered; "We are not alone!" pointing to the side of the trail. ...
RECIDIVISM
When I was appointed to the NM Medical Board, it was winter and my first attendance was the December meeting. A cold front and an associated early winter snow storm the previous night, caused havoc for my morning 65-mile drive to the state capital for the meeting. I ashamedly arrived an hour late for my first board meeting. To my relief, I learned that two other board members making the same trip had not arrived yet either. This is significant for this article, as the member’s tardiness allowed a lengthy discussion by the members present about a complaint received by the Board on a particular practitioner. ...
A THANKSGIVING PRAYER
Oh Great Creator
Whose voice I hear in the wind and running waters
Whose beauty I see in flowers and the setting sun
Whose breath I feel in all living creatures
Whose warmth I sense in the heart of my children
Myself, my parents and their parents before them. ...
IMMIGRANTS AND ELECTIONS
Elections are over, some have won
Others, lost
All the changes and nots
Affect many, but none more than us.
In times like these, when uncertainties abound
The nights are long, doubts and fear cry loud ...
VETERANS DAY
It's Veterans Day. So we salute all veterans.
As a veteran myself, I truly appreciate their service to our country and people. But it is saddening how some of our veterans are treated. In the last twenty years, more than 30,000 active duty personnel and veterans have died by suicide - compared to the 7,057 killed in combat in the same 20 year period. The US is number 22 in the veteran suicide rate in the world - this is appalling and unforgivable.
OF SEABISCUIT AND OTHER UNLIKELY WINNERS
It was on November 1st 1938, that the racing horse Seabiscuit, made history winning against War Admiral.
Seabiscuit was small and ugly, his legs were crooked, and he injured often. He was named "sea biscuit" a hard bread eaten by sailors, because of his undesirability. It was during the Great Depression, and people needed their spirit lifted by a winner ...
Night of the witches
This Halloween article has been a favorite of our readers, as many who work the ER, relate to the chaotic nature of such an evening, and so we decided to run it one more year. ENJOY!
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Awhile back, I had the fortune or the misfortune of working the ER on Halloween night, which happened to fall on Friday. At the time, I was living in a small but very multicultural town in Northern New Mexico. The night turned to be wackier than any of us expected. Of-course the usual, Friday night crowd kept us busy with drunkenness, bar brawls, car accidents, sniffling noses, and the standard medical incidents. But the unusual was what made it, well, rather memorable.
Autumn's Lullaby
Come o nature of autumn cool
Rest your head upon the golden leaves
Your fruitful toll of summer, fulfilled
With the sun, soil, and
Water, to the life giving seeds
Grown to nurture man and beast.
HEY DOC
On a cold and dreary night, long ago in New York, after a long and arduous day of working in the South Bronx, I was going home on the subway. I was surprised, when for the third time, I heard someone say; Hey doc, how is it going?
I was so tired that I had not noticed the pertinence of the question, till the third time. Amazed, I asked the man sitting next to me: How do you know I am a doctor?
"Your stethoscope." He said, pointing to my neck.
OF NEANDERTHAL DNA & ENTANGLEMENT THEORY
The UN General Assembly brought hundreds of leaders and policymakers from around the world to New York for a couple of weeks. I found this year's session very disappointing. Many talked, yet little of substance was discussed, as it seemed that blame-placing and finger-pointing was the only thing on the agenda ...
On a positive note, the Nobel Prize Committee is meeting right now and some interesting people are awarded this year's prizes:
MEMORY OF A FALL DAY
Fading or faded, the memory of a fall day, no matter how great
Slips away slowly, yet leaves an impression of the unforgettable
Much like a one-night affair of long ago, with that special stranger
Though love has since, followed with all kinds of specials
That one memory, lingers on and shows her head
At all the right and wrong places.
THOTH'S CALENDAR
Interesting thing, calendars. It is one of the ingenious inventions of mankind, that we use without regard to its origin or makeup. The hieroglyphics discovered in caves, tombs, pyramids, and stone monuments around the world, reveals its origin to be tens of thousands of years old. One such calendar of interest is the Ancient Egyptian Thoth Calendar,
UNMINDFUL OF TIME
Out of the nature that surrounds
And the world that turns around
Day and night set the mode
To work or rest when it's sound.
Time works to nature's need ...
LONGING
Reminiscence of bygone days, memories of what (once) was. Nostalgia need not be for long ago or far away, sometimes one can feel longing for something quite recent. Though my fishing trip just happened, I desire for its peace still. ...
THE OLD AND THE NEW
A documentary starts by showing a small caravan of six camels and four men walking across the hot sands of Mauritania in West Africa. The hooves of the camels and sandals of men displace the dry sand with ...
SUMMER HOPE
Expectations of summer
Hot days, green pastures
Lazy afternoons
Firefly evenings
Dreams of cold winter nights.
A QUESTION OF QUESTIONS
There is a question
Unanswered for centuries and millennia
That has left us bewildered.
Scholars and prophets have asked
All for naught
The Declaration of our independence
Monday is America's Independence Day, our birthday and anniversary as a nation. We should be celebrating it joyously. Yet in the face of all that is happening around us, it may be difficult to celebrate anything, while we are under attack from within as well as without.
PRACTICING MEDICINE ABOVE THE CLOUDS
A colleague, returning from three years of work in Chile, talks of the magic of practicing medicine in the villages of the Andes. "My clinic", says he, "could not be reached by any means but foot, burros or llamas."
OF FLAG, FATHER, AND NOBEL
Tuesday was Flag Day. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress of the United States adopted the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States. And next Sunday is Father's Day, to celebrate and honor our fathers. Just as a flag raises the
SILENCE OF THE ASS
The total disconnect between many politicians and leaders of the world and their constituents leave many of us bewildered. So much so that the disconnect itself has become news and limitless stock for comedians. It brings to mind an old proverb:
LOST HUMANITY?
Like thousands of others, I watched the movie 2001 - a space odyssey, in 1968. And was awe struck, spellbound, and hopeful for a promising tomorrow.
MEMORIAL DAY
In the face of recent calamitous events, my heart and mind are numb to the violence and brutality of all that is occurring in our country and the world.
COMMENCEMENT
Dressed in your best, you wait. Pressed gowns adorn anxious bodies, caps on, tassels hanging.
It's graduation and expectation day.
SPRING TEASE
Spring, she is a teaser!
With her tormenting winds, she plays with man and nature alike.
POWWOW
The Gathering of Nations Powwow, an annual festivity of the Native Americans and indigenous from around the world, is held
in April, in New Mexico. A celebration of cultures to honor the traditions of ancestors by reflecting, praying, dancing, and singing.
CHOLLA'S ADVISE
Rising seas, hurricanes, tornadoes, drought, floods and fires. Epidemics, wars, refugees, homelessness and famine.
Nature and history are screaming alarms, is anyone listening?
THE HOMELESS GYPSY
I met a man in Marrakesh, the story goes, who claimed to be a homeless gypsy.
His family and in fact entire clan had been wiped out by the war.
ALL THE KIND PEOPLE
A clap of thunder, this morning
Awakened me with a scare
GARDEN OF LIES AND DELIGHT
Waiting for a train
In a drizzling rain