Written by: Hao Yunrui
Vocal: Hao Yunrui
Verse 1
Thursday,
you stare at yourself into the soul
Asking where you should go
It’s a new day for you and life’s just
Happening,
Flower’s blooming so ~
Chorus
You
shall soar like eagle
Thrust your heart forward
Embracing the sun
And you will know ~
That life’s just begun
Hear,
the river’s calling
For you to look inside not down
And you will see how much
There’s
In the power of your heart
Verse 2
It’s 3 am
You’re nearly buried under the books weighing down
Lost a piece of your heart
But life’s more than just the trivial happenings
You have the power to love ~
The pandemic has flung all of us into helplessness. I feel increasingly isolated this year – and as a medical student I felt the need to be emotionally invincible, to hide these vulnerabilities others may perceive as “weakness”. With the constant deadlines and revisions, my heart also slowly grew… empty, like a zombie it lost the ability to feel – just mindlessly studying to shield myself from being hurt by failures, loneliness, disappointments.
Truly, as future healthcare providers, there’s always an emphasis on caring for other’s feelings, be empathetic etc. but I think we always forget to listen to our own heart and care for our own feelings. Through a module in school2, I’ve learnt that it is important to self-reflect, since it’s only through understanding ourselves that we can understand others – and treat patients’ stories with the insightfulness and sensibility that they deserve. Indeed, the power of “our heart” is so great, it contains so much rich emotions and thoughts that deserve us digging laboriously, for the glimpse into the human condition and insights about ourselves can be so meaningful. These insights can grow and heal us, while giving humanity to the doctor-patient relationship.
At the start of my medical journey, I thought it meaningful to be in a position to “heal”, to provide a solution. Now, I realized that by being kind to our heart – giving ourselves the permission to feel fear, grief, anger, joy at the transformative journeys of our patients, we allow a degree of shared vulnerability which opens doors for a more personal connection. Medicine is not so much fixated on “a goal” but rather a journey, an interaction shared between the physician and the patient – both giving a piece of their heart to the process, and bringing shared comfort.
I hope this song becomes a safe space for all of us, reminding us to love ourselves, listen to our hearts and look up into the blue sky and flowing rivers – in this pandemic time where everyone needs a piece of healing, being kind to ourselves is perhaps a good place to start a journey of uplifting others.
Yunrui