3.5% of us is all it will take (plus some words to soothe)

Posted on January 28, 2026 by marylbrandt

“Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.” (Robson, 2019)

Take care of yourself

“There are no more ancient bookends than sunrise and sunset. For millennia we have lived between their cycles. We have come to internalize their rhythm. Unconsciously we are aware of them even if we do not see them. My ancestors taught that it was important to acknowledge these daily transformations: the promise of a new beginning and the invitation to a deep rest. Hope and peace. We live in the balance between sunrise and sunset. We live between expectation and fulfillment. I will greet the sun when I first see it and I will embrace the night when it comes quietly to claim me. I will search for wisdom between the bookends of time.”

The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston

Nurdles, Forest Bathing, and the Secret to Life

Posted on November 19, 2025 by marylbrandt

The Secret to Life

If you don’t know about the amazing Kate Bowler… you’re welcome! Her take on the “secret of life” (yup, for real) is one of the best I’ve ever heard. (Click on the image to hear it)

Nurdles

Link to the Houston Public media report (and source of this photo)

“Tiny plastic pellets called nurdles – each about the size of a lentil – are washing up on Texas beaches in alarming quantities. These pre-production plastics are the raw material used to make everyday items like bags and bottles. But when they spill during manufacturing or transport, they escape into the environment, becoming one of the most widespread sources of microplastic pollution.”
Turtle Island Restoration Network

This is a scary situation I knew nothing about. These little pieces of plastic “act like tiny sponges, absorbing toxic chemicals such as pesticides and heavy metals”. So it’s not just that we take in microplastics by eating fish that have confused these objects with food, we also consume the poisons the nurdles have absorbed.

A reminder that forest bathing is wonderful (and so easy)

I spent some time yesterday in a park near my home and, while there, decided to try the Japanese practice of shinrin yoku, known in English as “forest bathing.” (Which is therapeutically known as sylvotherapy!)

It’s a practice that involves all five senses, one by one, intentionally…

Listening to sounds, birds, insects, wind in the leaves
Touching the ground, the trees, and the leaves.
Smelling flowers, plants, the dirt
Seeing plants, birds, animals, clouds..
Tasting by breathing through your mouth

If you work in a hospital or another building, a small green area or a single tree will suffice.

Even a few minutes can be transformative.

Fractal Fluency

Posted on November 10, 2025 by marylbrandt

Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.
Benoit Mandelbrot, in his introduction to The Fractal Geometry of Nature

Earth’s Most Stunning Natural Fractal Patterns

The Fractal Foundation describes a fractal as ““a never-ending pattern that repeats itself in different scales. This property is ‘self-similarity’”. These repeated patterns are found in the “roughness” of nature and the structure of our bodies, creating an order which is thought to be the subconscious reason we have such deep emotional responses to the beauty of nature.

Human beings are fascinated with the symmetry and beauty of fractals despite (or perhaps because) they are mathematically incredibly complex. Benoit Mandelbrot, a mathematician and polymath, coined the term “fractal” while working to understand the “roughness and self-similarity” in nature. Well, actually, his first work was looking at the “wild randomness” of the stock market… but as he explained, his formal work at IBM for 35 years allowed him to ask deeper questions.

“Dramatically referred to as “the fingerprint of life,” their repetition of patterns across multiple scales forms the basic building blocks of many of nature’s patterns ranging from clouds, trees, and mountains through to our brains, blood vessels, and lungs.”
Fractal Fluency: Processing of Fractal Stimuli Across Sight, Sound, and Touch, Taylor et. al. 2024

Most of us haven’t heard of fractals… but knowing about them allows us to see the world and our studies in medicine through (literally) a different lens. How cool is that?

Religion and Spirituality

Posted on April 4, 2010 by marylbrandt

People who are ill or hurting often turn to their religious roots for solace. The mind and body connection is a powerful one, and one that can contribute to good patient care. Spirituality in medicine can take an overtly religious tone, but only if both the physician and patient are completely comfortable. No matter what your religious background, you will care for patients whose belief system is different from your own. The true root of spirituality in medicine is compassion. Regardless of your religious background and your personal beliefs you can cultivate a philosophy of compassion. Both you and the patients you care for will do better because of it.

The workday can be onerous and fatigue can make you lose perspective. It is important to find something greater than you and spend some time there everyday. The most efficient method is to look inside of yourself by just sitting. Learn to just sit. It is harder than it sounds, but very powerful when achieved. Slow your breathing, close your eyes and let the thoughts go. Concentrate on your breathing and relax all your muscles. Don’t fidget, don’t move. When the thoughts start running (and they will), just acknowledge them and let them go. Try to get to a moment (and that it all it will usually be) when your mind is silent and your body relaxed. This is the moment to listen. Being able to quiet yourself this way is very conducive to allowing your mind to work on the “big picture”. If you spend even 10 minutes everyday in this kind of meditation, you will be surprised at how some of the things that are worrying you become “solved”.

Work at finding beautiful places where you can sit for a minute or walk. Nature is one of the most powerful spiritual experiences. If you have a favorite place to hike or be outside, take some pictures and blow them up for your house or call room. Put beautiful plants in your house and then take care of them. (Dead plants are a bad way to cultivate spirtituality…) Watch for the surprising moments of beauty in a day and notice them. Look for the flower blooming outside a patient’s room, the proud look of a father watching his two-year-old totter into the hospital, a new painting on the wall.

Cultivate a sense of wonder. Have you ever seen anything more incredible than a beating heart in a surgeon’s hand? Allow yourself a moment to be amazed in the middle of the day. People have incredible resilience at times – notice it and appreciate it.