Sarah Schnitker

And I think that

What Lauren is expressing here is also just this existential question that we all have limited time on this earth and that we all will die someday.

And that I don't think there's any easy answers here.

I think there are a couple things that could be helpful.

And one thing is to focus on kind of reevaluating our bigger purpose in life when we come to such a juncture where we start to question where we're at and if we have enough time to get where we want to be, that really thinking about what is my ultimate purpose and what do I want to accomplish for myself and also give back to my community in the days I have left on this earth.

Hmm.

The second thing that I think might be helpful is to consider a lot of the wisdom that comes from different

cultures and traditions across time and place that many communities, you see, deal with this question of our mortality and the fact that we don't live forever in a variety of ways that may or may not be helpful to a particular individual, but are worth considering.

For example, a lot of indigenous communities are

really focus on the seven generations principle of considering not just my own generation and what I do here and now, but the seven generations of my family that will come after and that I'm part of a long string of

of my family and not just here and now.

Likewise, a lot of your kind of traditional Judeo-Christian traditions and religious contexts focus on the afterlife and that this life is not all there is and there's more to come.

And this helps

us to think about patients differently when taking that kind of perspective.

And so I feel for Lauren, I think this is not an easy question she's bringing up, but I hope she might be able to explore some of the ways folks have answered this from a lot of our wisdom traditions over time and be able to kind of reevaluate her big purpose right now and see how that process might make her journey of patients be a little bit different.

I can feel some of that discomfort in Ross's voice as he's describing this and just how brutal sometimes physical recovery can be.

I think this is a really interesting example because we often think

in this cultural context in particular in the United States, but I think in other places as well, we just want to escape discomfort and we will do anything to do that.

And so learning that I can enter into discomfort and do something like walking, which is a real challenge when you're recovering from surgery, that I have the bravery to get up and walk and then

knowing that it's going to hurt and I'm going to have to be patient with that pain as I continue this activity because it's a necessary pain to achieve my larger goal of healing and getting out of this hospital.