I am a family physician, and have the honor of caring for patients without health insurance at a clinic I founded with my husband nearly 20 years ago. In my work as a doctor, I have come to appreciate the human being as an intricate and beautiful creation of God. Each is unique, and each bears its own role and connection with the Holy One of Being.That is why I cannot bear it when I see people being unjust to one another, torturing, killing, enslaving, and engaging in repeated acts of war and genocide. We do not have to do this.
Since our own shocking trauma in the USA, the destruction of the World Trade Centers on 9/11, I have studied religion, initially for the purpose of discovering what it is in our holy texts that seems to encourage us to do hateful things to one another, but later for the spiritual knowledge and ethical teachings I unexpectedly found within them. And I include here both Bible and Quran. My reading of these texts, and the teachers who have guided me through them, have led me to a very different course than I had expected. The path on which I find myself now leads to a place of answers not contained within my medical and science books, though in context of the holy texts, I see these, too, as guidance towards further signs about creation.
In connection with these sacred texts, I found myself compelled to tell the stories in a new way, one that recognizes the universality of the divinity within the human being while respecting the necessary differences between us. I was drawn, particularly, to the story of Abraham and his family, his wives, Sarah and Hagar, and sons, Isaac and Ishmael. This family, whose story fills the pages of Genesis and many chapters of the Quran, has been through some significant family trauma. Can we, with our modern stories, help to heal the painful rifts between mother and mother, brother and brother? These are the questions that compel me, and the inspiration for the books and essays I have written, and the books which, God willing, I still intend to write.
Aside from being a physician and an author, I am also a mother to five grown children and a wife to a husband and soul mate of 28 years, my partner in both work and spirit. My children are a constant source of love and challenge, opening my heart and eyes to the wonders and miracles present in our everyday life. I am poised and waiting for the next great adventure in life, the mysterious life of the grandmother, not yet a realized event, but somewhere on the near horizon. More writing to come on that subject as well, should I be so blessed.
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