My mission in creating a travel advisory was simple: make meaningful travel accessible to everyone.

I started Lotus Wellness Travel, a boutique physician-founded travel advisory because I believe safety, dignity, and beautiful experiences can exist in the same itinerary.

Spot has been a good reminder. Spot made me question if I’m truly living the bucket list life I write about. Spot is making me think more about my priorities, how I use my energy, and how much I really need to worry about things I cannot control.

Why can’t I just get over it already?

The answer to this question is not going to make you feel comfortable, but I hope it makes you feel validated- especially if you are also living with chronic, invisible illness, pain, or grief. These are more similar than I once realized.

We work in medicine, a field in which  2+2 does not always equal 4. We work in a field of gray, not black and white. If we think 2+2 always equals 4, we may miss diagnoses and get things wrong.”

This living, breathing, photosynthesizing succulent at the center of my table has quietly and peacefully overheard the suffering of generations. This week, I am certain it heard the protests and despair rising from nearby Minneapolis.

As I receive the gift of a 35th year, my challenge, my privileged treasure hunt becomes this: How do we turn a mindset of living with to simply living? Truly, vibrantly, and passionately living? I will do my best to find out.

If you’re newly diagnosed, facing a recurrence, or looking for ways to help others advocate for the best diagnostic an therapeutic options on a brain cancer journey (or really, any rare illness journey), I hope you find this video and its takeaways helpful. https://endbraincancer.org/caregiver-event-august-2025/

Please Listen: A Medical Humanities Poem published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine

“I have a trip planned- I WILL be healthy” is a mindset I’ve found myself in many times over the past five years.

I want STORIES to matter in patient care. I passionately believe who you are, where you come from, what you believe in, and what resources you have make a very, very real difference in your healthcare outcomes.

As a patient, I’ve witnessed and experienced the challenge it is to access information, find education, make well-informed decisions, and advocate for yourself.

Despite how healthy I am today, I hope I never stop thinking about death….It’s a thought experience that wakes me up to the beauty of each new day- one in which I am still breathing, the sun is still shining, and I still have the choice to decide how to use these gifted 24 hours.

But perhaps, that is who I am when it all comes together. A question and an answer, both as muddy and murky as the water from which a lotus grows forth.

What has your butterfly self survived through?