dear future healer,
as joy harjo reminds you with her timeless words
informed by indigenous womanhood,
you are not
a separate woman.
you are not separate
from your patients
or from this system
that you both find yourselves entwined in.
dear future healer,
when the world asks you for an order, a diagnosis, a decision
and you yield, soften, and listen instead
this is a miracle
and an interruption.
for in that pause
you can feel
that you are not
a separate woman.
for in that pause
you can feel
sorrow, sadness, loss, pain
and you can remember
these feelings live
on the same continuum
as joy, connection, wonder, and hope.
