The Gift of Generalism

It’s invisible when done well.
It will be missed like a mother when it’s gone.

It’s about seeing and knowing and caring,
about the past, and now, and then,
even when it hurts.

It’s noticing patterns and meanings
that map and hold the whole
as well as the parts.

It’s about shifting in and out
and round about
in how we know.

It’s honest uncertainty
that trusts curiosity
and the possibilities
inside not knowing.

It’s islands of precision
connecting to depths and horizons.

It’s about wading in close
toward a person and a family
behind the symptom or the smile.

It’s braving big wide oceans of pain,
to calm undercurrents
by staying near.

It’s about prevention and palliation,
cells and communities,
grief and gratefulness,
justice and joy.

It’s humble.
It kneels to bend power
from control, toward gift.

It’s tuning in to ordinary strength and fun
mixed in with pain and loss
in lives lived well.

It’s ripples of advocacy for the one,
built on knowing the many well.

It’s a rudder set toward healing
challenging the status quo
sensing what works
and carving pathways
to growing up and reconnecting to life.

It’s a wide heart with visions,
stories,
wisdoms,
struggles,
and joys,
navigating a place in the world.

It’s a way of attending,
connecting,
giving,
and receiving.

It’s about being a person.

Yes, a person,
who is let in
to a kind of miraculous gift:
a healer’s window on the world.