Back to work.

So I am back at work for the final three weeks of this internship. I haven't talked much about my work experience in the past few posts, so maybe it is time. I love being a doctor! I cannot express this enough. Everyday I witness tremendous change and transformation of the mind, body, and spirit of patients here. Sometimes it is challenging, but mostly seeing the impact this type of healing has on people's lives makes everything worth it!

I wrote this brief statement of my internship experience to advertise and find new interns. I thought it might be nice to share in this forum as well:

I seized the opportunity to intern at the Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat Center for three months after graduation. I was eager for warmth, sunshine, and clinical experience as a new doctor from Seattle. I looked forward to seeing the power of naturopathic medicine working in a retreat setting after extensive work in out-patient clinical settings. I was also looking forward to working in a place that combined a spiritual retreat experience with healing via detoxification.

In October, I arrived on the Big Island not really sure what to expect, but excited for whatever may lay ahead. I visited Hawaii once twenty years ago and have limited memories about the experience. People told me that this part of the island was fairly rural, it could rain a lot, and that I needed to adapt to local living and pace of life as soon as possible. All of this has proven to be true! Before arriving, I understood the basic layout of the internship. I would divide my time between two locations. Initially I would shadow Dr. Baylac and learn how the retreat center functioned. Then I would develop more independence and we would alternate visiting with patients and have more separate responsibilities.

My first day was a whirlwind. After a brief tour of the Keaau location where the office is located, I went with Dr. Baylac to the Kapoho location where the center was operating at full force – 2 patients doing Gerson Therapy, 4 patients doing various detox or addiction programs. It was exciting and offered the challenge and opportunity that I was looking for after graduation. After being shown how things operate here – from visiting with patients to folding laundry to online marketing – I began to gradually take on more responsibilities, offering my own skills as a doctor and healer. Dr. Baylac worked with my strengths and helped to develop a flexible schedule that worked for both of us. While here, I have had the opportunity to work with injections and IVs, enemas and meditation, exercise therapy and hydrotherapy, incorporating regular swims in the ocean with sea turtles, and much much more!

Everyday I wake up in disbelief at the abundance of natural beauty and deep healing power of nature that flourishes in Hawaii. As a doctor, it is a gift to work with patients who are committed to their healing process. Each of the patients that came to Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat Center demonstrated the inherent healing power and wisdom of the body. When a person is given the right physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual tools and the time to heal, amazing results are achieved! I am leaving Hawaii with a deeper awareness of how to support people through intensive times of healing, a greater knowledge of raw foods, an enhanced sensitivity to nature….and a great tan!

(Above I am preparing to teach a patient how to do a coffee enema. This is how to truly experience Kona coffee!!)

Pigeon Poop and Purification.

This morning I chased a pigeon off my hotel balcony. She was aggressively trying to get into my room to hunt for non-existent morsels of food that I imagine she anticipated she would find. After a ridiculous dance, which I am pretty sure the pigeon won because she spent the next 15 minutes making circles around my chair, I remembered this time in college that a pigeon got trapped in my bedroom.

As I recall, I had been gone from my apartment in Annapolis, Maryland for a day or two during record high temperatures. I returned to open my bedroom door feeling a wave of oven-like heat as a pigeon aggressively dive-bombed my face! Instinctually I slammed the door closed keeping the pigeon trapped in my 10’x8’ furnace-of-a-bedroom with all of my possessions. Not really sure what to do next, I listened to the flutter and crashing in my bedroom for a few moments before I decided that I needed to get the bird out of my room. I opened the door, preparing to protect my face from the pigeon’s wrath, just in time to see the rump of the bird toppling out of the screened in window.


Laughing at the hilarity of the situation, I gawked at the frenzy of feathers and poop all over everything, wondering how long the bird had been in my room? I remember cleaning up the poop, which had pretty much changed the color of my pillow case, looking at the window and wondering how the bird had gotten through the screen in the first place? As I began to move my gaze from the screen, which was now askew in the frame, I saw the most perfect sunset over the capitol building with early autumn leaves illuminated by the golden-amber light. I thought to myself – sometimes you have to clean up a lot of shit in order to see something this beautiful. I doubt I would have seen that sunset if I hadn’t been contemplating the pigeon’s break-and-entry.

I am really grateful for the bounty of sunsets that I have witnessed in Hawaii. And for the internal cleansing I am having during my time here.

Nostalgia and Gratitude

The other day I was an alumni representative for a Bastyr recruiting event in Hawaii. I talked about my experiences in medical school and life as a naturopath to prospective students. Seeing the pictures of Seattle evoked a sense of nostalgia for Bastyr and gratitude that this is my path. I am so grateful for my experience there and the community of doctors and healers with whom I have joined ranks. And it is amazing what a little bit of sun and time away from Bastyr can do to repair the damage of school stress!

Tacos, Tourists, Treasures.

Yesterday I stopped at a taco truck: Pacho’s Healthy Mexican Food. I recognize that Healthy Mexican Food sounds like an oxymoron, but I was really hungry and when I looked up across a busy intersection, I saw the truck and felt like God was shining a ray of light on the sign. In retrospect, maybe I was delusional because I was so hungry! Anyhow, when I was ordering two tacos, the guy asked me why not just order a burrito (same price, same ingredients, different shape). I told him they were very different eating experiences and the guy next to me nearly fell off his seat laughing. I really didn’t think I was being funny.

They were delicious eating experiences for sure. Afterwards I was talking to this guy who laughed. He said something about having a house on each Hawaiian island. I said something about wanting to sail around the Hawaiian islands and he said, ‘I know you will do this because this is your dream, but be careful because there is a very dangerous channel that my grandfather go trapped in and floated for two days in the ocean before he was rescued.’ Umm, I don’t need to sail around the islands that badly.

We kept talking and he asked me this and that. I said something about how living in Hawaii with such immediate access to the power of nature, it seems easier to tap into the great mystery of life. Not that we come up with any more answers, just that it seems easier to access this part of ourselves that is connected to everything around us. He honored me with a comment about how spiritually aware I am. I responded I am not so sure about that, but I am working on it. I think we are all working on it or we wouldn’t be here. He laughed again and then told me he was going to write two books titled:
• I’m working on it.
• It’s a different eating experience.
(He reminded me a little of Socrates from a Peaceful Warrior in his demenor.)

So if you ever see books or stories with those titles, I want to make sure I get some royalties!



This photo has nothing to do with this story, but what kind of treasure does this guy think he is going to find in the shallow protected waters of Waikiki? Seriously dude. A metal detector?

The Path of Least Resistance.

Last night I went to a concert with traditional Hawaiian music, hula dancing, and palpable aloha spirit. For five days, I have explored Oahu: Waikiki tourism, the idyllic north shore, city life in Honolulu, and most importantly the ocean waves. I went paddleboarding and surfing, spent over 5 hours on busses, peeked in a ton of shops and walked from Diamond Head at the east end of Waikiki to Chinatown in Honolulu (this was a very long walk!). Visiting Honolulu has renewed my spirit as I have been able to relax and process everything that has happened in the last two weeks.

Before arriving I was considering moving to Honolulu from the Big Island. I love the ocean and the nature in Hawaii, but I miss many of the social aspects of living in a city (people, random social events, art, restaurants). When I landed in Honolulu, I realized that part of what makes Hawaii so charming is that my time here is temporary. This confirmed that I made to right decision to complete my internship through the end of December and return to the mainland mid-January instead of accepting a more long-term position.

I am getting excited to return and live closer to friends and family! Hawaii is amazing, but it doesn’t feel like home. So my plan is to move to Austin, Texas in early 2011 and set up a practice initially focusing on diabetes and metabolic syndrome (hypertension, obesity, etc). Being on an island thousands of miles away from close friends and family has helped me clarify how important it is for me to be closer to them. Spending time with the ocean – swimming, listening, watching the waves – has helped me clarify how important it is to follow the path of least resistance.


And the path of least resistance brings me back to Texas. I have to honestly say that I never thought I would move back, but I am really looking forward to it! Maybe there is something in the blood – being seventh generation Texan has to count for something! And since I made the decision to move back, I have met 4 Texans who live in Hawaii who all swoon when I say I am going back. I almost never meet Texans outside of Texas. I will take our encounters as confirmation that I am doing the right thing.

Clarence ‘Buck’ Strickler aka PamPaw

My grandfather died in his sleep the night after I took the lava boat ride. It was surreal to feel the deep primal connection in my core with the shocking reality that someone who helped make me who I am is now gone. Forever. So within 48 hours of floating in a boat where fire and water united, I was on a plane in the sky watching a full moon rise over Waikiki beach on a clear evening. Eight hours after take off full of imperfect fits of airplane sleep, we began our descent into Houston, Texas. Moving in opposite directions from the earth, the sun’s rays began to rise above the dense cloud layer as the plane’s elevation decreased. A compete color spectrum emerged illuminating the perfect morning air far above the city with breathtaking beauty. The horizontal rainbow of light over Houston’s morning cloud layer rivaled any rainbow I have seen in Hawaii. And I knew that I was exactly where I needed to be.

The funeral truly was a celebration of life. I am honored to be a part of an extended family that comes together to support each other with love, laughter, and listening. We shared stories and heard the many ways that my grandfather impacted people’s lives. On one day, four people described him to me as ‘the salt of the earth.’ He enhanced life and other’s experience of it through his playful spirit, love of nature and family, and willingness to work hard to get a job done.

During the rosary, I kept remembering a few years ago sitting listening to his stories about growing up on a farm in small town Texas when he was in a one room school. At one point we realized that our hands were the same size. The squarish palms and the length of our fingers were identical. His hands were more weathered and wiser than mine, telling the story of a lifetime of hard work and willingness to lend a hand to others.

The similarities between our hands signaled the qualities we shared that inextricably bound us together. The need to eat as soon as hunger emerges – or else! Satisfaction from bringing a smile to someone’s face with a joke or story or simple smile. Love for having our hands in the dirt and watching plants grow and change. Years and years of dying Easter eggs together. A playful willingness to take on new situations. Satisfaction from a perfectly salted meal. Pleasure in cooking and creating in the kitchen with the challenge of giving anyone a recipe to recreate a dish. Delight in routine (although I don’t think I could eat oatmeal so many days in a row for so many years). Love of family.

The bond we shared is the bond you can have with a grandparent who loves you unconditionally, who offers you support and honesty when you need it. It is the bond with a grandparent who took pride in my successes and choices because he could see that he had been successful in making the world a better place through his legacy, his family. I am grateful for the role that each of my grandparents play in my life, whether living or not. And I know I will continue to carry PamPaw’s love with me forever. And if I ever need a reminder of our connection, I only need to look as far as my hands.

The Lava Boat.

On Thursday November 18, I took a lava boat ride to see where the fiery volcanic power meets the sea. We left work early to meet the boat at Poihoiki. It was a clear sunny day, as usual, and perfect temperatures, as usual. We eased into the water a little over an hour before sunset and had a 45 minute cruise to Kalapana through remarkably calm waters. We saw Kehena, a pristine black sand beach nestled between trees, various rock cliffs encroaching on the vast ocean along this eastern coast of the island, and vast changes in the flora. These changes give anthropologist an ideas of how long ago people lived in certain areas and informs geologists of the earth’s content and age. It is amazing the information that nature will give you when you pay attention. As we got closer to Kalapana, I could see the tufts of steam billowing along the side of the Volcano tracking the path that the lava flows from 10,000 feet to sea level forshadowing the raw power we were about to witness.

If you have ever been to a volcano, you understand how difficult it is to imagine that this red liquid flows up from the core of the earth, continuously finding its way through the gaps in the underbelly of the earth. Even more difficult to conceive is that the lava is 2100°F, almost one hundred times higher than the temperature of boiling water. This is hot enough to immediately incinerate anything manmade and most things in the natural world.

As we rounded a corner approaching our destination, a wild fury of steam was visible emerging from the edge of the earth. The steam rose up and gave off the smell of chlorine creating the feeling of being in an open-air sauna. I really cannot describe the anticipation as we began to encounter and witness something so immensely powerful. Eventually I will post some video or a photo album to give an impression of how magnificent the experience was, but I really cannot find words to describe the experience. At one time, I had all these poetic things to say about it...about the way that the four elements came together, the way that the water embraced the molten earth, the fireworks as a gift from Pele...but in reflection on the experience, I feel speechless.


There was something within me that felt like it awakened as we watched the flow of lava find its way into the ocean. Something very primal was triggered as I listened to the constant pop and crackle of the molten earth as it cooled into solid rock when it met the heated ocean water. Coupled with the constant activity in front of me was a deep sense of stillness and awe that I was able to witness such a natural wonder.

We rode back to the dock under a full moon, listening to pink floyd and the captain telling us his story and how this was one of the most spectacular nights he had seen. Only about fifteen nights a year as perfect as this, he said. Even though there was the sound of wind and the with a stirring of the motor over the waves, I felt a deep sense of peace and awareness that I am truly a part of something much much larger.