newest British singer on my radar: Charlene Soraia covering The Calling’s ‘Wherever You Will Go’
♥
lucking out on featured presenters at the SLC • the Neglected Global Diseases Initiative • the marvellous little space heater lent to me by the office • my very long, very red scarf • successfully catching snowflakes in your hand • Peking duck • 高丽豆沙 • achieving financial independence (yes!) • finding a new direction for postgrad • finishing a gruelling novel • the brilliant burst of winter sunshine after any kind of precipitation • dancing for three and a half hours • the amazing people who organized and attended the Mental Health Networking Event • tracing patterns in the snow
♥
over the next few days, I hope to start writing posts on my current co-op work term experience, as I think that might be useful to students who are wondering what a work term might look like
Speaking of the SLC, UAEM & Neglected Global Diseases Initiative, and your recent comment on Tyler’s blog:
If you told me at the beginning of 2011 how much I would change in a year’s time, I would have laughed. If you were to ask me today where I would be and what I would be like in five years, I’d be equally clueless. Life sometimes takes us in unexpected directions.
Literature teaches us about the human condition. How do we (or should we) separate the human condition from illness, suffering, and redemption?
Maybe I’ll try to re-frame my question. What can stories, story-telling, and story-tellers show us about the human experience of resilience, health, and wellness?
How interesting that you pose the kind of questions I’ve only just started asking myself in the last week (really asking, that is).
One currently on my mind is: How do stories/narratives contribute towards healing?
I’m also curious about the narrative of medicine: how the language of the medical profession affects diagnosis and treatment, or on another level, how it affects our understanding of one another as human beings.
I haven’t got answers; I haven’t thought deeply about any of this before now, to be honest. It’s only that, after a number of years of promoting mental health, I’m beginning to realise the power of speech as healing, particularly for those who have undergone some kind of trauma, on a level I never understood before. I’m wondering what storytelling does when dealing with physical healing, and whether, in fact, the physical can really be treated separately from the mental.
I’ll have to think more about all of these, but it sounds like you might have some interesting ideas on the topic. I’d love to hear your take on it, if you are comfortable sharing.