April 8th was the "International Day of Gypsies (Roma)"
 

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.
And he, the only survivor of his kin.
But then it came to him that some had escaped to North Africa.
Hence, the reason for him looking there.

I remembered, that tale told to me by a fellow traveler on a train to Madrid, some time ago.
The gypsy did not find any of his kin, but in searching
he came to find a family of Berbers.
While lost in depressed slumber one hot evening, he said,
a familiar sound of music, caught his attention.
It snaked out a narrow alleyway into the street.
Slowly, he strolled down the passageway
the hypnotic music seemed familiar, as he got closer.
The way opened into a cul-de-sac and a group of musicians
sitting around a centerpiece playing, oblivious to the gathering crowd
men, children and women, moving to the music.
Dancing, swaying, bending and waving
wrapping the music about them.
A young girl, dressed in a tight white dress spun seductively
 
Our wandering gypsy realized, he had found people of his kind.
He took out his lute and joined them.
In his later conversation with them, a kinship was discovered.
Accepted, he was asked to travel with them.
As destiny had it, sometime later, he married the young dancing girl in white
and lived with them henceforward. Homeless no more.
 
A heartwarming story, it was.
At times like this, it behooves us to appreciate
mankind is all of one kin, finding common traits
is a coalescing bond that heals spirits and bodies
only then we may truly realize that humanity is so precious.

Reza Ghadimi

In the face of all the calamities in the world today, I thought that we could use a bit of humor.  So this is just in time, as this week is "International Laugh at Work Week"
I will leave you to yourself to work this out. Think back to your career and recall some funny moments in your practice. Having to deal with the public on a daily basis does create some interesting times. I am sure many were humorous. Use those recollections to brighten up your day.

I recall one busy Monday morning, when a new patient showed up at our orthopaedic practice with a broken arm. At check in, our busy receptionist - out of habit - asked; "do you have an appointment sir?" to which the irate patient snapped back, "No, I forgot to make an appointment before I broke my arm."
A colleague happened to be coming into the office at the time and witnessed the exchange. He calmed the scene by making light of the question, and loudly said: "Next time sir, please call us first, we may be able to break your arm much better than you can. After all, we are specialists, you know!" His statement caused a big laughter throughout the waiting room and put everyone at ease.

Google "Humor in Medicine" and you will get a site full of cartoons and jokes. Here is a tip for a rewarding practice; "Make every patient smile before he or she leaves your office."
HAVE FUN!

A clap of thunder, this morning
Awakened me with a scare
Unexpected this early in the spring
Though the storm was welcoming
To our thirsty world
The morning news, however
Was anything but welcoming
And the media makes us think
That our world is full of evil.
 
But, I've found that people are inherently good
They will always return a good deed
I once helped a choking child on a train
His parents didn't speak English
But they shared their beans and tortilla with me.
 
Another time, I helped a lady find her car
In a sprawling mall's parking lot
She gave me a quarter
That's all the change I have, she said
I accepted with a smile, knowing it would please her.
 
In nature, it rains on the rich and the poor alike
Affluence carries no weight
I've been places
Where it rains all the time
Assaulting the desert grown skin of mine
Give me the sun baked sand anytime
I will appreciate it from
The shade of a Cottonwood tree.
 
Working in clinics around the world
I've come to understand thankfulness
In the eyes of the sick and the injured
Even when they say nothing
At times it makes me feel
That I've won the lottery
Lottery money will soon be gone
A kiss on the cheek from a little child
Will never, ever wear off
I wish I had spent more time there.
 
I like this world
And pray for it to share its rain
With me and all the kind people.

Reza Ghadimi
March 31, 2022

Waiting for a train
In a drizzling rain
Under an inadequate shelter
Shivering wet, the young and the elder
Coming or going where
No one seems to know or care
 
Today is not so clear
Yesterday is gone, tomorrow not yet here
Do not know what is in the air
Confusion in all, and everywhere
I've many years to go
Will I have anything to show
Watching people through history
Adds only to the mystery
 
Why am I here, what's the reason
Am I better than an ant or a bison
If I was an ant I would be closer to the earth
And as a mole, closer yet
As a giraffe, further away
And a tree further skyway
Yet my feet firm on the ground
For it is where I belong
 
But as a man, I feel disengaged
Shiver in the rain, yet not be obliged
To feel the connection
To that which I am a section
Soon the train will be here
And take me away from this sphere
I will be warm, no matter the cost
Who cares if all out there is lost
For it's my thoughtless plight
To live in the garden of lies and delight.

Spring will arrive on Sunday, March 20, 2022, at 11:33 a.m. EDT and 8:33 a.m. PDT in the Northern Hemisphere, marked by the Vernal (Spring) Equinox.

Noted by many cultures as New Year for thousands of years. Nurooz, which means new day, is celebrated in many parts of the world. Zoroastrians were one of the early cultures that started their year thus. It is a time of purification and setting one’s intention for a new start. Other civilizations, such as Mayan also celebrated the Spring Equinox for hundreds of years before the Spanish arrived. Even the western cultures started the New Year in the spring till Julius Caesar changed it to January in 45 B.C.
 
Sadly, the political atmosphere of today's world leaves little to be cheerful about. The new war in Europe makes one wonder if, despite all our technology and availability of scientific information, we are getting smarter or more dim-witted. For, in this world of the twenty-first century, many nations are still fighting territorial wars, while the climate change is threatening the very nature of our planet, and people around the world live in squalid and inhumane conditions. Millions are dying from starvation and preventable diseases. Children play in running cesspools and breath acrid air of industrial residues. According to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), more than twelve million die every year due to unhealthy environments.
 
Spring will arrive this Sunday. It is said that "as the seasons form a great circle in their changing, so does the life of a person - from childhood to childhood." Since many of our leaders are acting dangerously childish, perhaps it is time for our younger generation to step up and save our world. So "Arise and start anew, for much awaits to be done. All things evolve from the creator, and all must revolve to complete the circle of life!" It is time to be completing this circle peacefully.
 
Despite all the tragedies in our world, I wish us all a better and Happy New Year! May it be a peaceful one!

Amen!

Special, from the book Practicing from the Heart in the age of Technology on the occasion of March 14, International PI Day.

March 14 is International Pi day. No, not pie day, rather Pi day. The mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, approximated as 3.1415926535….. Thus, the fourteenth day of the third month of the year (3.14) is celebrated as Pi day by mathematicians.
The decimal number goes on forever. Contained within its string of decimals is every number pertaining to man’s life, history, nature and cosmos. And if the decimals are converted into letters, you will find every word that ever existed, spoken and written. All the infinite possibilities of words rest within this one simple circle.
In our bodies, too, the ratio of our consciousness or psyche to our physical being could be said to have infinite possibilities. Our body goes where the mind tells it. Our mind works by the demands of our soul/consciousness/intellect/psyche – or whatever we want to call it. Our actions are dictated by our desires, wishes and wants which in turn are based on our intellect, education, experience, and wisdom. The more of these combinations we use, the better will be the outcome of our deeds. The possibilities of our actions are infinite. The choices we make may depend on the advice of others, on our teaching, or on a variety of outside influences. But the end result is where we end up in our lives and what we have to live with. Limited knowledge leads to limited and fewer choices and actions, wiser decisions produce healthier and happier outcomes. There are many options to the constant of man’s need, and our technology could help those options. Indeed, it is a wonderful time of history we live in and if prudent decisions are made, a bright future will surely be ours.

Reza Ghadimi

The ongoing calamities around the world strains rational thinking.  Just as we feel that we have the grasp of one tragedy, another explodes. We are being pulled in so many directions, that we may question the very significance of life itself.  But if there is anything I know of life, of all the hopes, the happy days and the sad ones, of the days of blue skies and nights of new moon, of the sound of children at play and the pain of wounded, homeless, and hungry is that it challenges the very soul of us, the essence of our being, and the audacity of our existence. 
 
But will life remember us?  Will the wind sliding down the mountain recall how it made us shiver? Or the sun, how it burned our skin?  Will our name be recalled in kindness, and will the birds that came to be fed by us, still visit our place?  Will our children have the freedom to run in these woods? Will their children?
 
Whatever it is, will its endurance/survival benefit our progeny, our namesakes and brethren? What did our lives mean? Was it just a passing, or something will remain of it?  Though we are just a traveler through these times, we learn from all that we see and pass it on to others passing us by.  Hoping that they too add well to it as they pass it on, for this is our life until we die or live on if we are remembered well. Till then, let's not add to the crisis, let's stay peaceful, heal the needy, keep learning and teaching. May be then our existence will be audaciously meaningful.


Reza Ghadimi
March 10, 2022

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 they did not notice lions stalking them, and ended up losing both 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 the world's arrogant, narcissistic, and hostile leaders are completely ignoring this grave danger, playing the blame-game, and fighting each other for nonsensical issues.  Yesterday's emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly, and the speed by which, the world countries reached consensus on condemning Russia's aggression was encouraging, to say the least.  Hopefully, it says that the world is tired of the belligerencies of superpowers and is not going to put up with them anymore.
 
These hostilities add to the already intolerable refugee crisis around the world.  According to The UN Refugee Agency, by the end of 2020, 82.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced.  The new war in Ukraine is attracting much attention and everyone is talking about the refugees from that country.  As unfortunate and inhumane, as this is, it must be remembered that the Ukrainian refugees are not replacing the other displaced people. They are joining them, exasperating an already dire situation.
 
As the climate change overtakes island countries and low laying ocean front communities, more people will be displaced, and this time, they will have no physical home to return to.  By some estimates, more than half a billion people could lose their home with the rising seawater.  Add to that, all who will be displaced by drought, deforestation, increased fires, floods and storms, and well over a billion could get affected. That will make the job of healthcare providers many times more challenging than Covid did.  We must beware the lions of climate change, for they are stalking us and getting very close!

I hear the bugles sounding
Ominously giving us warning
 
Raising the passion of the young, and
The fear of the old in our homeland
 
There is talk of an incursion
A neighbor is thinking of invasion
 
In a far distant land
Against it, is our responsibility to stand?
 
But we've been there and seen it all
When someone makes a cautionary call
 
The warnings, alarms, and fears of war
And how it could affect us all, by far
 
Everyone cries; this could be bad
But is it ours? Or we're being had?
 
Why are we involved, I cannot see
I could not sleep, as it haunted me
 
We scream, this is insanity
As it will involve all humanity
 
Like a wildfire, it could spread
It must be stopped, we should look ahead
 
We've seen and heard it in the past
As we were told and left aghast
 
And how it all came to pass
After many gave their lives in mass
 
As the politicians were talking and planning
Our soldiers were praying and dying
 
So we hope and pray for some relief
Oh Lord, please save us from this grief
 
It is a great storm coming our way
We feel powerless and can't keep it at bay
 
NOW, just think if there were no borders
No walls or fences to push us to corners
 
Mankind would be truly free
Of anguish and torment, we can all agree
 
But is that too sensible? I swear
Hence as doctors, we need to prepare
 
For, our way, the wounded will come
Our heroes, with unforeseen outcome
 
At some point there must be an awakening
To give reason, some enabling  
 
That this world is too small to be divided
And expect that all be provided
 
Let's give all, some hope and room
Do away with fear and gloom
 
Freedom for mankind, then will be true
If we share our wisdom through and through
 
Only then can life have some meaning
Of liberty, choice and wealth of being!
 
Reza Ghadimi
 February 2, 2022

Presidents' Day is celebrated in February. Though only Washington and Lincoln are mentioned, two others were also born in this month.  William Henry Harrison, born February 9, 1773, and Ronald Reagan on February 6, 1911.
 
But in February we celebrate the birthday of several other people as well, who were responsible for altering the course of history, or added to its importance. Here are a few, whom in my humble opinion, made a profound contribution to history:
 
February 4, 1902 - Aviator Charles Lindbergh, who flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean, first.
February 11, 1847 - Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb and other electronic devices.
February 15, 1564 - Galileo Galilei, who invented the telescope.
February 19, 1473 - Nicolas Copernicus, who theorized that the earth rotates around the sun and accurately predicted the cause of seasons.
February 27, 1902 - John Steinbeck, winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature.
And many others.
 
And a sad note of immense importance to remember; It was on February 29, 1692 - in Salem, Massachusetts that several girls were first accused of witchcraft.  A practice that led to the demise of many innocent women in the most appalling manner.
 
Today's uncertain politics and conflicts around the world generate many emotions that, left unchecked, could easily lead to atrocities.  Just last Sunday (2/13), a preacher in Tennessee, claimed he knew of six witches in his church.  Which begs the question; have we really learned enough from our past to build a better tomorrow? The events of the past few years sure don't show it to be so. Fortunately, today's information technology helps us iron out much of the mayhem.  All is needed, is our desire to use it to build bridges and do away with walls.