Mysteries

I'm in the middle of my sixth year of medical training (seventh if you count the year of public health), which at times seems like a lot and at times seems too few. It's both startling and comforting to recognize that I will never know all there is to know about medicine, no matter how long I practice or how much I study. I just hope that, in spite of occasional frustration and fatigue, I will be able maintain compassion, humility, and hope of understanding the unknown, while recognizing that there will always be some things that are unknowable.

“Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity,
while we ourselves dream of rising.

How two hands touch and the bonds
will never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.”

- Mary Oliver

{Tessie B. Dog}