Letter from the President March 2019
“A Second Calling”
On Saturday, March 23 Dr. Michael Winters and I will offer a class entitled, “Second Calling: Find Meaning after Medicine.” It will address the experience of retirement after having responded to the call to be a physician. It would be no surprise to feel a sense of loss after dedicating one’s life to being a healer. I’ve been there.
The day I closed my practice of medicine in 1990 was the day I took several thousand of my patient’s charts to another doctor’s office. Standing in the doctor’s office, I thumbed through the charts and placed each chart in the rack. I wanted to personally look at each chart to see if there were any charts I needed to keep a copy for myself.
That went well until I came to a thick chart which meant I had worked with this patient for many years. As I flipped through page after page I suddenly realized my charts were a record of every single thing I had done with that patient. I had ordered every laboratory test and x-ray. I had dictated the operative notes. I had recorded by hand every progress note.
Suddenly, I began to weep. I suddenly felt my charts were a sacred record, each told the story of care and concern, and yes love, that I had for my patients. As I put chart after chart in the rack I came to realize my calling to medicine had ended. What would fill that void?
In the days and years that have followed my practice of medicine, I have indeed found that God’s call on my life did not end the day I closed my medical practice. I am still a man who prays for guidance every day and God has opened doors. Most importantly, I never would have thought I’d be where I am today as President of the Institute for Spirituality and Health.
My work at the Institute brings together my twenty years as a physician and my twenty years as an Episcopal priest. For nine years, I have been part of a new calling. A calling to increase awareness of the role that spirituality plays in health and healing. A calling to help others explore and grow in their spiritual life through practices that can bring about a sense of well-being and wholeness.
Is there life after medicine? Can there be a second calling? I am certain the answer to that question is yes and I look forward to meeting with physicians who have shed a few tears as they left their patients and their charts in another doctor’s care.
John K. Graham, M.D., D.Min., President/CEO President and CEO – Institute for Spirituality and Health