conversations about medicine and life
We publish a range of perspectives on health and wellbeing, especially reflective or creative work which fleshes out the biomedical version of illness and disability.
Sandra Arnold
In 2003, a year after our youngest daughter died, my husband Chris and I travelled from our home in New Zealand to Oman to live and work for a year. The challenges of living in this fascinating culture helped us learn to live with our grief in a way we couldn’t at home. Gradually I regained my ability to write. When we got back to New Zealand, I started recording our experiences from that time. This is one of the stories.
Rachel Sayers
On 14 September 1975, fifty marchers left Te Hāpua in the far north of Aotearoa New Zealand for the 1000 km walk to Parliament Buildings in Wellington. The hīkoi (march) was organised to raise awareness about the catastrophic loss of Māori land rights since colonisation. Led by 79-year-old Dame Whina Cooper, the hīkoi grew in strength as local people joined in along the way. About 5000 marchers arrived at Parliament on 13 October, where they presented a petition signed by 60,000 people to Prime Minister Bill Rowling.
I was nine years old when this photograph of Dame Whina Cooper and her granddaughter setting off on the hīkoi was taken. I don’t remember the event and yet the picture is meaningful to me. It hangs on my office wall, and often captures my attention as I glance up from the computer. I’ve always thought this is because it encapsulates what I feel is most important in life: children. The next generation. Our future. But why this picture and this particular quote? Why does it resonate with me so much? I decided to investigate further …
Kathryn Perks
Kathryn Perks explains what prompted her to write a guide to putting our affairs in order before we die.
During our lifetime we seldom consider preparing for our death or what will happen to our possessions when that time comes, or more importantly who might be given the unenviable task of trying to make sense of all that we leave behind. Often our siblings or children live in different cities or countries and we put off discussing with them what we know we should. It just never seems to be the right time and for some of us it can be a sensitive topic to raise, even with those closest to us. It is however usually our family members who are faced with this responsibility and are expected to step in.
Mike Riddell
Dear Mr Riddell,
We would like to thank you for sending your claim form and supporting documentation into our office for our consideration, and apologise for the delay in our response to you.
We would also like to advise you that we have assessed your claim today; however, in order for us to complete the assessment of your claim, we require the following information from you:
In the meantime if you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind Regards,
The Travel Claims Team
Emma Storr
The practice of medicine is very demanding emotionally, whatever specialty you are in. Writing, for me, is way of processing that emotion, and often also trying to distill a particular interaction with a particular individual while also saying something about the everyday human experience of illness, vulnerability and joy. It’s a way of thinking out loud and responding to my experience in a creative way.
I love trying to craft a piece of writing by choosing the right words and, in the case of poetry, shaping the poem on the page. I am also in awe of the human body and brain. Writing gives me a way to explore the mystery of the way we function mentally and physically at a lot of different levels. It keeps me learning. I like the way that poetry allows an opening of our senses and blurs the artificial divide between art and science. [Read more…] about Poetry and medicine
Lorraine Ritchie
Weeding is the unglamorous part of gardening. It doesn’t produce anything, Rather, it un-produces. Weeding makes things disappear, dissolve. Weeds do not end up in vases on the table to add colour and fragrance to the household, and weeders do not get their own columns in the daily papers and magazines. But, believe me, weeding is good for your health, especially if you derive the same level of satisfaction as I do from pulling, tugging and digging them out on a regular basis. Both physical and mental health is well served here.
