On this beach, 10 years ago, I made one of the biggest decisions of my life. At the time I was an internal medicine resident at Mount Sinai hospital in nyc, learning how to to care for the sickest patients. I was at one of the best medical institutions in the US and at a job I’d worked incredibly hard to get. And I decided to leave. I told @dberz that “I’m going to be a hippie doctor.” I said it half seriously and half laughing. But it was a moment that would define my next 10 years. It took courage and was also to others pretty insane. They were right. It didn’t make sense. But I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was somehow reaching the patients who needed me most too late, and the idea of treating The Root Cause spoke to me louder than anything else I could hear. I had no idea that 4 years later I’d start @parsleyhealth, that first I’d consult in health tech for a while, or that I’d find a way to train with some of the top leaders in functional medicine. None of this was the plan. Or not the plan. There was no plan. I’d soon find myself leaving a world where I was on a clear track to one where there was no such thing as a track. To let go is to be in free fall, for a moment, until you learn that you are more monkey than human, able to catch yourself as you swing from branch to branch. Now I am here. I am learning and growing. As a mother. A leader. A partner. Parsley has been through so much growth and evolution, created so much healing, and is at this moment on the cusp of so much more it’s hard for my head to hold it all. Both of us imperfect but earnest, holding hands as we seek to find better versions of ourselves. I’ve already learned more than I ever set out to know. We can never imagine where we will be. We can only step into the future from exactly where we are. I could never have predicted the last 10 years. But, as I stand here now, in this place of deep intention (a beach, a dot on the map, a location that invites both ending and beginning at once)- I know that is there is only now. And that I’m learning to swing from branch to branch, appreciating what it feels like to fall and fly at the same time. 🌿