HeyJaredHealers Write, Writers Heal
“Healers Write, Writers Heal” is a weekly essay that explores life lessons hidden in ordinary moments.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 11
- Latest publication
- Sep 30, 2026
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- Jul 14, 2026
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24 Hours in Vegas (opens the original)
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In September 2013, I spent twenty-four hours in Vegas. I went there to take a Board Certification exam for Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Most people are aware of what Hospice is, what it offers. Hospice is a subset of the larger circle of Palliative Care, which offers support to patients (and their families) with advanced chronic illnesses: heart, kidney, lung diseases, progressive diseases of the nervous and immune systems, and cancer.<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https:
There’s No Expiration Date on Grief (opens the original)
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I wrote this story in a workshop, after reading and discussing Beth Ann Fennelly’s poem called “Yield.” Stop and read the poem if you like. It’s about a woman coming to terms with living alone, and it uses food as an effective extended metaphor.After discussing the poem, I gave a prompt: Write about a place you visit a lot that others would find unremarkable, then write about what makes that place remarkable for you.I wrote in the shadow of Fennelly’
My Unbelief Got Tested (opens the original)
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In the summer of 1974, when I was twenty, I drove from New Jersey to Connecticut, one of the first times I’d made a long drive alone. I was not a confident driver, but I felt comfortable in my own car, a 1973 hunter-green Austin Marina.It was a hot day, and I wore a halter top that I had knitted myself from beige cotton worsted. It was backless, short, something I would never wear now. I got about halfway up Rt. 684, near the midpoint of my trip, when my accelerator pedal got stuck.I had to brak
The Moment that Changed Everything (opens the original)
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In October of 2016, I went to the Examined Life Conference in Iowa City. It fit me perfectly: a writing conference sponsored by a medical school. The keynote speaker was Dr. Rita Charon, whom I would later study with at Columbia. I elected to take a preconference workshop, hoping to generate new material for the memoir I’d started. The scheduled facilitator didn’t show up; she had the dates mixed up, so one of the conference leaders took her place. The stand-in teacher began by suggesting a free
Lessons in Boundaries (opens the original)
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During my medical career, I was good at setting and holding professional boundaries with patients. It’s possible to have both empathy and limits. As a consulting physician, I struggled much more with setting boundaries with my colleagues.Once, when I was a brand-new attending physician, it was my turn to see patients at Mainland Hospital. This was the less busy hospital for our practice, and the one closer to my home. One afternoon, I was able to get home early, and I was running around in the b
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