"If I Get to Five" by Fred Epstein, M.D.This book is about a pediatric neurosurgeon and the patients that he treats. There are some amazing stories of survival and some heart wrenching stories of death but they are all laced with courage immeasurable. This is a doctor who decided he wanted to do "medicine" differently and treat his patients as people and learn from them. He never turned down a patient, he was always willing to operate, no matter the risk. His patients adore him, his staff looks up to him and the families praise him. He wrote this book after he himself had an accident that left him in a coma for a month. He fought to gain his life back just as so many of his patients do. "Compassion isn't a passive state. It's an act of will, an act of courage: the courage to cope with every parent's worst nightmare, the courage to be emotionally honest, the courage to risk having your heart broken, the courage to care enough to push yourself to do what's scariest." There is so much in this world that takes courage. Sometimes it is just getting out of bed, letting go of your children, saying what you have been keeping in your heart, loving again, and the list goes on. What do you need courage for today?
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