June 2, 2025

by Dr. Plastic Picker

It’s June! I can’t believe it’s June! I’m sure if you see me in clinic today that is what we are all going to be saying. “Dr. Plastic Picker! It’s June! I can’t believe it’s June!” I’ll be seeing Dr. Melissa Campbell in clinic today for the entire glorious day, and I’m really happy about that. It’s June, and I can’t believe it is the last June of her three years with me in clinic. She’s graduating and going on to be chief resident beginning in July. She’s my first continuity clinic resident after having been a pediatrician for almost 20 years. I decided late that mentoring suited me, even though I had been mentoring for most of my career – because that is naturally what doctors do.

But it’s June, and everything is in full bloom.

But I’m holding it all back. Purposefully slowing down time. Mindfulness, prayer, bird-watching, plastic-picking – are all very powerful. Because they all literally slow down time. And with time, we have joy and can be effective in doing the things that we need to do.

Everything is in full bloom, but I need time. I need the year until Mr. Plastic Picker agrees to be chief of his department. A position that I am absolutely dreading. The job is literally killing him. It’s too stressful and he needs to take care of his health. I need the entire 365 days until our little one graduates, because her life has taught me so much about my own life and the world. I have no desire to see her leave me one minute sooner than she will, as she likely will go off to college away from us and away from my mothering. I need the entire 365 days to organize and to work on climate projects, interwoven somehow into my clinical work. I need the entire 365 days to be a daughter-in-law to my in-laws who are getting older, and these 20 years with them have been wonderful. We’ve raised the four of us two wonderful human beings. I need the entire 365 days to be a daughter to my own parents, to spend more time with them. We are always working our family, and isn’t it time we were just together?

I need the entire 365 days. So it’s June, and everything is in full bloom. What do I do now? I live. I live every second and every moment of this beautiful chaotic life. I get to live today. And not worry about tomorrow.