Nerdnote #58: What's in a name? or, a Chinese-American's reflections on being a Doctor of Oriental Medicine

The words that we use to describe ourselves are important. Here and now, we are finally beginning to honor the right to choose these words. However, in my professional life, I find unmanageable labels applied to my highest achievements.

Today is 立春, lìchūn, the Beginning of Spring by the lunar calendar. Interestingly, the Spring Festival, AKA Chinese New Year, does not begin for another 12 days. It starts on February 16 this year, and traditionally lasts 15 days.

Nerdnote #34: on grief
written August 17, 2017

I've been thinking about grief lately, watching it unfold in one of my patients eerily mirroring my own experience, and wondering why nobody's written about the way it runs its course, like a fever or an injury.

I wish I had kept better records of my own process, ennumerate the things I wish I'd known.