Life is Beautiful

So today while working in the OR, I saw a list of things to live by. Although, many of these ideas are things that I've integrated into my life already - it's always nice to refresh yourself once in a while! Here is what I read in the OR - (credits to this website for the list and pictures below)

"You life can be as beautiful as you dream. You just need to believe and to do some simple things. Here is a list of things that will help you to make your life richier and happier. Perform these daily, and enjoy your life in this year;)

Health:

1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar..
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy..
5. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer.
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did last year.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours..
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:

11. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake.
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Society:

25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:

32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. God heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank God for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Last but not the least:

40. Please, Forward this to everyone you care about."

Fragile...

With every end, comes a new beginning. With every event, we try to understand its purpose. At times though, I can't make sense of the things happening around me. But life after all, is lived forward, and understood backwards. However, right now, I can't run forward fast enough in time so that I can understand everything that is happening around me. It's almost like the physics concept of - what goes up, must come down - extends beyond inanimate objects. You work so hard to rise up, but then you are knocked down. Why? I don't know yet.


It's not just the circumstances around me that make me realize how fragile we all are. Everyday in the hospitals, I see babies, teenagers, young men and women, and elderly from every ethnicity being stricken down. People who were full of energy one day, keeping busy with life's little quirks and repetitive motions, and then one day God hits the pause button in their lives. To be vibrant one day, and to be counting down your days the next. I remember this one patient during my surgery rotation who came in with a two day history of severe abdominal (stomach) pain. Her CT scan (picture of her bowels for non med readers) showed ischemic bowels (dead guts). We stayed up through the night in the operating room to surgically explore if there was any way we could save part of her bowels so that she can live. Nothing. Absolutely nothing could be done. Every inch of her bowels were dead. It felt futile. The OR was dead silent aside from the noisy beeping machines and the respirator. Noises that were giving false hope of life. We put her bowels back to where they belonged and proceeded to neatly suture (close) her abdomen. We then waited for her oxygen levels and blood pressure to become even more stable. It was odd to see all these little steps taken to make sure she was medically "stable", despite the fact that she will die tomorrow. We then proceeded to talk to her son who had just flown in to see her. The surgeon explained that everything possible was done, but that she will still die tomorrow. Tears came down his cheeks. Here was a vibrant, active woman, living one day, and dead the next. The surgeon and I walked to the elevators after this sobering evening. There goes another life I thought. Another existence gone. The surgeon and I quietly walked into the elevator with our heads down. On our way up, the elevator stopped one floor above us. A mom and an adorable little boy stepped in. He wanted to push the elevator buttons, and then he was excited to see two doctors. The surgeon and I looked at his enthusiasm for the simple things in life, we looked at each other and smiled finally. With one end, comes a new beginning.

"On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are"

Live, Laugh, Love

Like my girlfriend, life is quite short. But, I also love it (and her too). This past week had a recurring theme. A theme that I thought most people would have already thought of - knowing your priorities in life. Strangely, not everyone realizes similar goals at the same time in life.

This week, the oncologist (doctor specializing with cancers) I was working with summarized her life to me. About going to university and being boy crazy, realizing she wanted to become a doctor (and all the crazy competition it took), her transition though medical school, and lastly - a point that stuck out to me. An older doctor told her - 'look, as much as you love your career, don't do what I did, don't wait too long before having kids'. I'll explain further down why this stuck out to me, after the next story.

Later on that week, I bumped into a couple of the nurses that I had worked with previously. Now I love talking to nurses, so we sat down to catch up over a quick lunch. Of course this lead to the typical questions a med student is asked - what do you want to be, are you going to work here again, are you dating/married? During our conversation, the nurses told me about doctors' lifestyles, time (or lack of), and divorces. This is when I proceeded to explain my views and priorities of life. When I finished, they strangely looked at me wide-eyed, as if I was speaking things unheard of by someone my age.

Life is short. Make the most of it. Make an impact on the world. Make an impact on the people that matter the most to you. When I talked to the oncologist, I was surprised that she didn't realize her priorities in life until someone pointed it out. When I talked to the nurses, I was surprised that they were shocked that I knew my priorities in life. When I look at the big picture, if I'm super optimistic, I have already experienced 1/4'th of my life and it flew by! This means, for the remaining portion of my life, I better know what to focus my time and energy on. The only way you can do that, is if you know what your main priorities in life are. To me they are 1) your health 2) your family. Job and money are secondary to these. By being healthy, you can feel good, you can live longer, you can as a result dedicate a lot more of your time and energy to your family!

When I imagine myself as an old man, I know that I'll look at my children, grand-kids, and lovely/bossy wife. I'll look at them proudly and I'll happily realize that this is all that matters to me. They are everything. I'll know then, that all the sacrifices, dedication, and effort put in since I was a little boy was worth it all. I won't think about my career as much, I won't think about the money I have or could have had, all those things fade. Patients will appreciate me, thank me, and forget me. Money will come and go. Your family is truly all that you'll have left. So when I tell my doctor, nurses, and friends that I want to choose a specialty that won't be hectic, that won't be too busy, that this career comes second, that I don't care about being rich, that ultimately your health and family is all that matters - I am taken aback when they have this sudden look of realization that, hey, you're right. No wonder a lot of these over worked doctors end up divorcing - how can you be happily married if you are never home? How can you raise your kids properly if you rarely see them? You can't live without knowing where you are going, and you won't know where you are going without having a sense of direction - your goals in life. Thankfully I know mine :)