Balance

We knitted only a little last night...mostly we talked. One of the things that we talked about was knitting (of course). Two of the girls, psych residents both, said they were starting to learn how to knit and were frustrated by how hard it was to learn. One of them said, "I just want this to be perfect, like yours is."

So the first thing I did was show her all the mistakes that I have made in my current pair of socks.

Then I told her what I had heard the Amish do in their quilts: they often intentionally make a mistake in the quilt. They feel it opens a space to let God into their work.

Some of my projects have more God in them than others.

But it's something important, especially for med residents to think about. We are so focused on being perfect and working hard all the time...and at the same time, we aren't really MAKING anything. We're labeling people, and we're trying to change their chemistries or their ways of relating to others, but it's a long slow process and sometimes more destructive than productive. At the end of the day, I want to feel like I am making something, besides money and headaches for my attendings.

So I knit. See? There's a med-knitting link. You just have to, you know, stretch.