Medicine is this | 2022 Stanford Medicine Year-End Video

Together, we are Stanford Medicine.

This holiday season, we salute the people whose passion and commitment drive us forward, and wish everybody a happy and healthy 2023.

Medicine
By Audrey Shafer, MD

Medicine is this: the sun dries your unfurling wings and you stand commencing
with new wisdom

Medicine is this: we are alone, each in our own body
yet, like roots intertwining trees below the forest floor
we connect, each to each to each

Medicine is this: an awareness of transience
eternity held in a single moment
the moment held with a steady gaze
researcher, teacher, patient, doctor
the connecting circles of those who care

Medicine is this: we are here
beside you, beholding you; we listen
we pave a path girded by scientific discovery
and remain here, with you, as you feel the gentle warmth of health

Medicine is this: an ever education that teaches
love, that teaches justice, that teaches speak up, that teaches pride that
teaches the colors of the many threads which weave among us
that teaches the long arc of mending and care

Medicine is this: a life you dream becomes the life you lead
you sit at the bench searching for an answer
the many nights, the puzzling paths ending at the secret garden’s locked gate
and just then it comes, the very question you need to turn the key
you connect with those around you, and you smile
curious as morning light to see what the day will bring

Medicine is this: masks and shields, gloves and glass,
a door from today opens to tomorrow
an overture: a chance to breathe, to sigh, to smile

Medicine is this: a gaze from a waiting room window
your body no longer scripted, your fingers tap quietly
you rise to the call of your name, to a receptionist’s bright smile
while above, the helicopter brings a new family to the wide arms of healing

Medicine is this: long nights, long hallways, infinite pages
hard choices, fatigue felt in bones, yet
clocks become calendars, neophytes become seasoned
and welcome, as they had been, all who come to learn
connections like bridges through generations
each knowing more, each contributing
as the community of medicine
nurtures insights to full flower, from the promise of green buds
to the sun-tipped splendor of blossoms open to the world

Medicine is just this: us
we are medicine
from a baby’s first blinks in the light
to a patient’s guided steps after surgery
we are medicine
from a grinning preschooler as her end-of-treatment bell rings
to a friendly check on a colleague after a heartbreak shift
we are medicine
from the first white coat to the cap and gown
we champion the head and heart of research
to understand, to pioneer, to transform science into hope
we are medicine
all of us shining points on a great linked sphere
together we learn
together we teach
together we discover
together we share
together we heal
together, we are medicine.

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Stanford Medicine advances human health through world-class biomedical research, education and patient care. Bringing together the resources of Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford Medicine is committed to training future leaders in biomedicine and translating the latest discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease.

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