Relaxing on the Bay

I am on the road again. I rose from my bed at four AM to get to the Philadelphia Airport for another weekend trip. What is nice now is that I have turned my passion into my career and now I go to conferences in great places, meet interesting people and learn a whole lot. I used to travel once or twice a year to medical/doctor conferences. Those conferences were never much fun, as I usually started the day at a 6:30 am session of “Breakfast with the Experts” and went straight through doing Continuing Medical Education courses and other lectures and viewing and learning dinners until 10 pm three to four days straight.

Medical conferences are just no fun. There are a bunch of doctors and scientists who are the “Important” people or “Key Opinion Leaders” who are basically paid off my all the pharmaceutical companies and device manufactures to brainwash the rest of us into following lockstep into a certain standard of care. My friends and I would joke wonder when that particular doctor presenter was going to give the commercial for their favorite product that they would use on their own mothers. Each year the product would change, I supposed based on who was paying them the most. Well perhaps it is not that bad but I will tell you that I have colleagues who are paid speakers and I ignore what they say as I do not believe they can divorce their honorarium from the company from their opinion.  Of course all these doctors are the smartest and brightest and “best man” in the field. I was a lowly private practitioner in the middle of New Jersey, so who had any time to talk to me.

Now I am in San Diego on the Bayfront. I have a room with a view of the bridge to Coronado. I am about to go seek out some of the California sushi, as there are so many varieties of fish here that are different from my East Coast home. San Diego seems to always have perfect weather with no humidity and a slight pleasant breeze. Its a pleasant walkabout city with decent public transportation via a city trolley and a tourist trolley.

My  conference is going to be great. In my new path I have met so many famous people, I mean really famous people, who are nice and want to talk to me. They are gracious and kind. This past Monday I met author Salmon Rushdi. Yes that guy that certain extremists are trying to kill because of his writing about Islam. He looked just like all the caricatures I have seen in newspapers over the years. No one was around him when someone pointed him out to me at the Women: Inspiration & Enterprise Symposium cocktail reception. So I walked up to him and said introduced my self stating that I do a wellness radio show talking about controversial issues. He said ‘Yes. I’ve been know to talk about some controversial issues myself” He was cool when I asked him to take a picture with him. He actually seemed quite flattered. He had a good energy.

Tomorrow I know at this conference will be some named people and I know they will all be great because these people are in different kinds of helping professions. This conference is to help us be better. Period. The experts will be revealing all their own secrets and giving up step by step instruction on how to blow up and be big.

In my career as a clinician, I ran across very few humble experts. Now its so totally different. I am here in San Diego relaxing overlooking the bay and contemplating how much my life has been enhanced by giving and humble people in this new arena.

I am happy and grateful that I have made the choice to surround myself by people who share their gifts and talents with such fervor, positivity yet humility. Try wrapping and surrounding your self in your own gratitude as well as that of others and you will be

Relaxing on the Bay

Dr. Veronica-Wellness for the REAL World