‘Doctors and nurses are more like gardeners than mechanics, and healing happens thanks to the same force that greens the trees in spring and pushes bulbs up through the earth. Be kind to yourself. Take care over who you listen to, because ideas and expectations are as powerful as drugs and poisons. Human beings understand the world through stories: not all have a happy ending, but each of us has a hand in writing part of our own.’
want to leave you with a quote from Gavin Francis’ book, Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence. He read this for us on Wednesday night’s True Stories Book Club (Rookery members can catch up in their feed), and I now think it should be printed out and handed to every single person leaving a doctor’s office: ‘Doctors and nurses are more like gardeners than mechanics, and healing happens thanks to the same force that greens the trees in spring and pushes bulbs up through the earth. Be kind to yourself. Take care over who you listen to, because ideas and expectations are as powerful as drugs and poisons. Human beings understand the world through stories: not all have a happy ending, but each of us has a hand in writing part of our own.’