Volume 5; Issue 1
This collection of work comes from a Group Health Writer’s Conference. Participants were asked to write for 10-15 minutes, creating a “Quick Write” piece to share with their group and with us. These short stories, told in a few minutes, tell stories deeply personal, heartfelt, and heartwarming; stories of becoming whole, finding self, finding home, and helping patients to become whole—emotionally if not physically. These are stories of loss and hope; stories of humanity. The images reflect that humanity: a flower from a loved one and a mother’s “worship flower,” a footstep in the sand, and more.
We tell our stories and create images to express our human experience; we read stories and gaze upon art to share in that experience, to learn from the experience of others, and to revel in our own humanity. I hope you enjoy these brief revelries.
—Max McMillen, ELS
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Parenthood has been the greatest journey of my life. Medicine is a great journey as well, but in my practice…
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She was sitting on the exam table. Long and lean, a dancer’s body.Bright green leg warmers (it was St Patrick’s…
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The sun came up, illuminating the tops of the peaks in a rose-colored glow, as wisps of clouds scuttled along…
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He sat at the corner of the table, and I could sense he was nervous from his sweaty palms when…
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(left) A Flower from Ed This image is a mammogram contact print of a lily printed using color solarization. (center) A…
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Photograph taken in Mumbai, in the home where I grew up, with a Nikon F100 camera, a Nikon 105 mm…
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My patient was 85 years old and dying of metastatic pancreatic cancer. It seemed as though her daughters, in expressing…
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Her tiny, frail body lay in the middle of the room. The EMTs were busy trying to save her. I…
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Writing from the heart Stories escape through the pen Naked on paper Clock ticks ten minutes A moment. Story…
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This piece started as a doodle and became a happy accident.
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Floating down the Nile, I could hear the waves hit the sides of the boat. The air was still, and…
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Photograph taken on the beach at Pacific City, OR, in 2004, with a Nikon F100 camera, Nikon 28-85 mm zoom…
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“Water Lilies” is a small, 12" x 12" oil painting on canvas and was inspired by a water pond that…
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I asked her to repeat her name for me. It’s an old Norwegian name, she said, you don’t hear it…
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My patient, Charles Hirsh, a long and lean aging man, lay on top of his assigned hospital bed, waiting for a…
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“She’s been playing ‘Dr Willett’ since her last visit,” her mom says during the happy “settling in” for the visit.…
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