Historical Reflections: The Medical Heritage Center Blog

Voices in Humanism

Quarantine

To tear through a book
lovingly, hungrily
as with no other choice
as it tears through you
wakening memories, pasts, dreams
punctuated by the soft hum
of the small cat beside you
the lingering warmth in your hands
from the last cup of tea
as you turn the last page
and lay awake, content, dawn.

Jessica Rutsky, MD
April 20, 2020
Voices in Humanism

Voices in Humanism

Liminality

I bought a desk today
I put it in front of a window
I’ve taken to sitting at it more often than anywhere else in my apartment
There’s people outside
I don’t know why that surprised me

I remembered to update my calendar today
Have so many days passed already?
Without conscious effort, it’s hard to remember
Everything blends together
Is it Tuesday?

I did my laundry today
I can’t remember when I had done it previously
Why put on clothes with nowhere to go?
It’s always approaching bedtime anyways
an endless twilight

I watered my plants today
Half of one is dying
I don’t know what to do
plants are supposed to be simple to take care of
Was this something that could’ve been prevented?

I went outside today
I kept the mask strapped tightly to my face
I stayed 6 feet away from anyone I saw
I wanted to be closer
I wanted to ask them how they’re handling everything
To ask when the last time they were hugged
To ask how they deal with the anger and sadness from the news
To ask if they can sleep, if they can stop dreaming
I can’t remember what ‘before’ was
Will there be an ‘after’?

Lindsay Fannin
Class of 2023
UltraSound A cappella Choir Leadership
Voices in Humanism Board

Voices in Humanism

Comfort Boxes I

Comfort Boxes were developed as part of the Trauma Informed Care by the Creating Optimism Through Relationships and Education (CORE) Team at Harding Hospital. In creating your box, you are encouraged to be mindful and imagine how you would like to create comfort for yourself and what is important to you.

Think about what colors, pictures, ideas, memories, people, and quotes that express what is important to you. Try to touch on all five senses in creating your box. Marybeth McDonald began this program at OSU and she created this Comfort Box in retirement.

Marybeth McDonald, LISW/S
Psychiatric Social Worker, Retired
OSU Harding
Medicine and the Arts Roundtable
OSU College of Medicine Humanism

Voices in Humanism

Home Sweet Home

“While being a family stuck at home due to the pandemic has been challenging, it has also provided opportunities for time spent together that we may not have otherwise appreciated. I saw this Mario “Home Sweet Home” cross stitch pattern as the perfect tongue-in-cheek way to memorialize this time in our lives…some of which has been spent sharing our love of video games with our son.”

Artistic Media: Cross Stitch
Christin J. S. Thatcher
Program Coordinator, LSI Part One, Year One
OSU College of Medicine

Voices in Humanism

Summer Sweets From a Medical Student’s Kitchen

Grace Lee
Class of 2021
Humanism in Medicine Leadership Team
UltraSound
Ether Arts

Voices in Humanism

Waiting to graduate, spring 2020

See the smoke over the horizon
Fires on the coast
Swaths of forests burn while
Buried, seeds soak in the new ash

Buds swell lively with leaves
Tadpoles trundling through mud
Grow new legs but
Feel their tails shrivel

Spring air clean and empty
Sunsets watched through windows
Fingertips drum on the glass

New rhythms

Allison LaRocco, MD
OSU College of Medicine, Class of 2020
Humanism in Medicine Senior Award 2020
PGY 1, University of Maryland Medical Center

Voices in Humanism

thoughts at 2:30am

My breath
Gets caught in my throat
It hurts to exhale

Each time
I think it’s okay
To let it out
To breathe
I come across
Another bit of news
Another life lost
Another cruelty
At the hands
Of our so-called protectors
Exposed

Each time
The hope
I’ve begun rebuilding
Comes tumbling down
And I wonder
If I will forever live in a world
Where I can’t comfortably
Breathe
Where I have to worry
About the safety of loved ones

Each time
They leave the house
Even if just to run
The most mundane of errands

Hafza Inshaar
Class of 2023

Voices in Humanism

Pandemic Passage

The light fades again.
Another day passes
as I, sheltered in place, question:
What is the difference
between today and tomorrow?
How can I be sure
that winter has passed into spring?

The light shines again.
Another day arrives
as I open the door to see
that the trees have grown leaves.
Bright, green leaves!
Now I can sleep tonight,
knowing, without a doubt,
that winter has passed into spring.

Nick Yoo
Medical Student, Class of 2023
The Ohio State University College of Medicine