Spiritual Lessons from Biology

It has been 2 months since I underwent a partial meniscectomy to fix my knee. I’m now able to run, rock climb, and even dance in my kitchen while I cook dinner! The surgeon told me to expect a full recovery at 8 weeks. Yet, after having completed a regimen of physical therapy sessions, I still experienced pain and swelling. I was eager to bring this up with my surgeon at our final post-op appointment. At that meeting I told him I was confused about why my recovery was taking so long. I explained that I’m very dedicated, in fact I was asked to do less exercise because I was overdoing it in an attempt to rehabilitate the knee. My doctor explained that my problem wasn’t a lack of dedication, but the fact that I’d lived with my injury for so long. I was injured four years ago in New Zealand. At that time, I was a foreign student in grad school. As I was without a lot of extra cash or insurance, surgery had to wait. My doctor explained that the tear was one of the most complicated he had ev...

I recently received a message from a friend of mine who lives in Oregon. There was no text, only a ten second video panorama of what looked like a war zone. Trees were strewn all over the ground. Splintered wood carpeted the scene. It took me a moment to realize that the recording was taken just outside of their house. I was shocked. After visiting them each year, I’ve come to know their land well. The forest surrounding their home has become like a friend to me. Now it’s an unrecognizable wasteland. I called my friend to make sure she was alright, and she told me the story of what happened. Over the summer, new tenants purchased the adjacent property. They were first-time landowners and did not consult anyone about managing their forest. The couple decided that they wanted more sun, so they hired loggers to come and cut down the trees on their property. Residents in the area (some of whom had been in land management for 40+ years) reached out to the new neighbors and explained that th...