Q – I just discovered your blog and have had fun reading it, however, it seems that you have stopped blogging?

A – It’s true. I burned out a little. Well, that’s a simplification. Moving here (to Germany), emerging from survival mode from medical training and settling into a normal life opened up all kinds of new emotions in me that I didn’t anticipate. The most important of these was a distinct realization that I wanted to deepen and widen my relationship with my wife.

So instead of pounding out these blog posts, I’ve been cooking dinner once a week (“Daddy Dinners”) and spending the majority of my nights watching some show or other with my wife by my side as I run my fingers slowly through her hair.

I’m gradually putting together a new blog – “Lover, Daddy, Doctor” – that picks up where SW101 leaves off. But it reflects my new focus in life.  I’d anticipate some humor, occasionally more intensity, less medicine.  I’d even expect the occasional Bible verse to accompany an irrepressible proclivity to pepper my writing with a well-placed swear word (Hey, I’ve come a long way…plus I’ve long bet that God nods to honesty before Christian decorum).

To survive in medical training, you HAVE to make survival and success your number one priority. I would have sworn this wasn’t true for me, but it was. Failure anywhere along the training path is a conscription to a lifetime of insurmountable debt, even poverty. Now that I’ve survived, my genuine priorities have emerged. I love to write, so it’s natural that I would blog about this new direction in my life. But I’m not sure. This is personal. More personal than just the experiences of being a doctor trainee. Maybe the story of one guy’s quest to be a better man is better left to be pondered quietly in the heart.

So, I’m mulling my next “move”. Maybe I’ll just pick up where I left off and start up SW101 again (thanks, everyone of you who wrote in to ask where all the good times went). Maybe I’ll finally finish my book.

Ultimately, I just can’t tell you where I’m going because I myself don’t know.  I DO know that I’ve successfully grilled tuna fillets, invented a mango/pear/mint salad that everyone loved, and I can broil Portabello mushrooms all by myself.  I learned the difference between Goat Cheese and Feta Cheese.  I know where the measuring cups are in the kitchen.  I can tell you every character in Lost (and the top 4 theories about what the freaking show even means).

But what I REALLY know is that my wife looks at me with eyes I haven’t seen for 13 years.  And this stirs my soul in ways that make most of the rest of my life comfortably superfluous.  This blog got caught up in that eternal vortex…

When I know anything more than this, you will too.

SW101

“All that I am, all that I ever was, is there in your perfect eyes…they’re all I can see.”  -Chasing Cars, by Snow Patrol