Dooley Noted: 4/30/2016 Today, I drove on very narrow rain forest roads. This was particularly challenging, since I was also driving on the left side of the road here in Grenada. What I love about driving here is that you can’t get distracted…even for a second. Text messaging? Please. Messing with the radio? No way. The roads are barely as wide as one car length in most of the … Read more
Dooley Noted: 4/29/2016 I am 37 and currently unmarried. In my nearly four decades, I’ve been in my share of relationships. I’ve also spent long spans between boyfriends, experiencing my life on my own. I have traveled the world by myself, teaching on several different continents. And until a few months ago, I lived alone. During these pauses between relationships, I never once got lonely. That was reserved for … Read more
Dooley Noted: 4/29/2016 I’m having a beautiful, relaxing time teaching here in Grenada, West Indies, at St. George’s Med School. One of the amazing anatomy instructors, Ben Turner, offered to bring his slack line to the clubhouse so Jonathan and I could try it. Ben was a marvel of proprioception, swinging back and forth and rarely losing his balance. As I stood on the slack line, I had to hold onto Jonathan for … Read more
Dooley Noted: 4/25/2016 I spend a large amount of my career performing human dissection with students. The first thing we observe and remove is the skin. It’s day 1. Then, it’s rarely part of the discussion for the next several weeks. The most fascinating dissections occur deep to that skin, in the various layers of fascia, nerves, muscles, bones, viscera, and various other tissues that make the human so fascinating. … Read more
Dooley Noted: 4/24/2016 I’m currently sitting on a balcony, with the love of my life, drenched in Caribbean sun. We are more than a little excited for 13 days from now, when he makes me his wife. He looks forward to me writing this blog every day, and he asks to hear it before I post it. This is a stark contrast to boyfriends in the past, some of which even … Read more
Dooley Noted: 4/23/2016 There once was a girl who didn’t love herself much. She would fall in love with boys, despite the fact that they treated her like she was an expendable resource. She went back for more, secretly craving love she didn’t have for herself. She found affirmation in the dissonance of the boys who refused to love her back. Then, she decided to love herself first. She committed … Read more
Dooley Noted: 4/22/2016 For the last several months, I’ve been teaching for three medical schools. Med school is hard. So is chiropractic, physical therapy, dental, podiatric school. I’ve had the honor of teaching anatomy at all of these disciplines, plus educational seminars for massage therapists, strength coaches, acupuncturists, and fitness instructors. No matter the discipline, there’s one truth about students. A frazzled student is one who cannot learn. … Read more
Dooley Noted: 4/20/2016 In the traditional sense, I wasn’t disciplined much as a child. My parents were hard-working, trusting people that took an unusual (and probably exhausted) approach. They never grounded me. I never had a curfew. They never forced me to get good grades nor excel in sports. They never pushed me to have a job. But something fascinating happened. I never got in trouble and … Read more
Dooley Noted: 4/19/2016 Today was a true test of my emotional management. The hits just kept coming, attempting to jam my trajectory into chaos. I found myself more frazzled than I had been in some time. Then, I took some advice that I give so often to others. I exhaled. I focused hard on getting control of my exhale, since that moment is when oxygen is delivered to cells. … Read more
Dooley Noted: 4/18/2016 This past week, I spent several days overseas teaching my heart out. Couple the intense teaching with distant travel, and it typically equates to a loss of strength. As I performed my workout today, I was surprised at how what seemed easier last week actually seemed harder this week. This is the fragility that is strength. You can work years to develop your strength, and lose it more … Read more