I hope it’s still true, but for a long time the neurosurgery service at the hospital where I worked had a wonderful ritual. Every time a neurosurgery resident performed a case for the first time, they were required to go to the cafeteria and buy ice cream for the entire team.
Ice cream (especially Blue Bell Vanilla…. IYKYK) is joy in a container. But maybe there’s a way to add to that joy. In Judaism there is a tradition of blessing the routine moments in life, including the first time something is experienced. You don’t have to be religious to understand this kind of gratitude… it just means acknowledging moments that inspire joy, awe, and wonder in a special way.
It’s important for medical students, residents, and everyone who is training to be a healer to keep a journal. There are many reasons that’s ture, but one may not be obvious is what it will mean to you when you open your journal years from now and read your account of the first time you heard a murmur, the first time you cried with a patient, the first time you saw a birth, or the first time you bore witness to a family’s loss.
And then there are those moments that you never want to forget… like the first time you hold a newborn during the magic hour when they are starstruck, looking around with open eyes and wonder (the most peaceful expression you will ever see on a human face).
So buy the ice cream for the first case.
And then say “Thank you”.
Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
mary oliver