Do you currently live with a chronic health condition or care for someone who does? Have you overcome a significant health event in the past? Would you like to use your experience to inspire others who may be going through similar circumstances while simultaneously expanding your own blog readership?
If so, PhoebeMD would like to invite you to submit your story to be considered for publication!
A medical student. A simple question.
“How am I supposed to go on caring?”
At the time, suggestions abound.
Work-life balance. Self-care. Hobbies.
Remembering our initial calling.
Remembering we still make a difference.
Remembering our love for medicine
and the privilege we have as caregivers.
But then the realization-
I don’t know the answer.
I only know that I have witnessed around me-
at every stage of training and practice-
evidence of emotional exhaustion.
Dissatisfaction.
Disillusionment.
Burnout.
So this is my plea…
“If you start living for the smallest reasons,
that’s when you know you’re really living.
The smell of rain after a thunderstorm,
the shades of pavements when it’s autumn,
the mediocre midnights and the color of the sunsets,
the warmth of oven when baking Christmas cookies,
the thickness of paper when flipping through magazine pages,
the smell of new books and new clothes and new things.
When you start looking at things,
really really looking,
you’ll start living.
Because then you’ll understand how it is to really be a human…
in this world full of people.”
◊
May we recognize the treasure within the little things.
Wishing you a beautiful day.
💙
By Chris Reed | Featured Contributor
James Hillman told me
the demons will come
at night in old age,
and will settle
on my bed,
on my chest,
in my hair,
in my head,
in my guts,
and prod me awake.
Befriend them he says.
They are your demons.
They are here to help.
And know you are
enough worn with years
to be not afraid.
Drink tea.
Pay heed.
Converse.
If you look them in the eye,
know you’ll soon be gone,
so don’t care what they think,
they will give you quarter
and disarm.
Then you can hold them close,
like children,
with sharp claws and teeth,
and comfort them.
For their torments are yours;
their shadows are your shadows.
Hand in hand in the night,
no one is afraid of the dark.
![When the Broken Becomes Beautiful [a poem]](https://i0.wp.com/healthinspiration.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/pexels-photo-3041109.jpeg?fit=1200%2C764&ssl=1&resize=40%2C40){kind=small}
