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Walking The Charts

This article appeared in Traditional Chinese Medicine World magazine.

A man was once given a small corner of a vast garden to tend. He cared for it well-weeding, seeding and watering the land with love and attention. Over time, his modest corner of the garden flourished, teeming with abundant life. Under the man's hand, lush greenery, vibrant flowers and rich scents filled the small parcel of land, to the blessing and delight of all who entered or saw it.

Since the man had proven himself capable of caring well for that which he was given, he received more of the garden to tend, expanding the size of his corner to include some of the adjoining land. He welcomed the new responsibility with gratitude, seeing the challenge as an opportunity to bring more life and beauty into the world. He cultivated his larger corner of the garden with the same great passion and respect, and before long, his corner grew again and then again, steadily over time.

Great was the beauty and the blessing he brought into the world. His life's work inspired many to attain greatness and magnificence with their own part of the vast garden. Through his example, the man helped many find peace, joy and fulfillment through making their own land a unique and glorious expression of who they are.

Not far away, another man was also given a small corner of the great garden to tend. He resented it and felt that he was badly done by. To him, it was unfair. He felt he should be given a different area, one that was already great and beautiful, not the sparse one he had. He did everything he could to resist how things were. Grumbling, he did the minimum required to keep alive what little plant life there was. He complained a lot to his neighbors, speaking of little else but what was wrong with his lot of land and his lot in life. Under his faltering, undisciplined hand, the land that was his to keep languished, becoming overgrown with weeds, which choked the life from the flowers and other plants. Eventually even the weeds became dried and brown, withering in the breeze and sun.

One day he came to his corner of the garden to find that much of it was gone, given to others to tend. What remained of his was tiny, just a few yards across. Seeing this, he became still more angry and resentful, complaining all the louder of how badly life was treating him. He inspired only discord, discontent and joylessness in those listened to him and took in his words. The result of his life was greater darkness, ignorance and ugliness. The garden had no more beauty for his presence.

This simple and obviously metaphorical story illuminates several principles of life. Without naming each one, we see the basic teaching is that if we welcome and care well for that which we already have in our creative field of responsibility, life will give us more.

In a healthcare practice, this idea takes form as caring for people well, to your highest vision of what that means. It means making care as least as important as cure, compassion at least as important as correction. It means giving all the people you contact through your practice the beautiful gift of who you are. The result of this is that your practice will grow, steadily if not quickly. And you will earn a fine reputation as a practitioner and as a person-something beyond price or measure, something hard won and easily lost. If you care well for the patients you have, stay concerned more with the depth and fineness of care you provide than with just "getting more of them in the door," letting your practice be filled with the finest qualities of who you are, then you need not worry that your practice will grow strong and full.

One practical expression of this principle is a process I refer to as "walking the charts." This is one of the most important habits I have developed over the twelve years I have been in practice. I know that if "the book is thin," meaning that I have many gaps in my clinic appointment book, it is because I have not walked the charts recently enough. After I do walk the charts, the book is soon full again. It is that simple.