When the Soil Isn’t Right, We Fall....

A tree can have strong roots, a healthy trunk, and all the potential to grow tall—but if the soil isn’t right, it struggles. The nutrients aren’t there. The foundation is unstable. It leans, weakens, and sometimes falls.
Doctors know this feeling all too well.
Medicine is built on the idea that if we study, train, and dedicate ourselves, we can grow into the clinicians our patients need. But what happens when the soil around us—the system we work in—isn’t nourishing? When we’re planted in conditions that don’t allow us to thrive?
We see it in the long hours, the administrative burdens, the moral distress of wanting to give the best care but being stretched too thin. We feel it in the exhaustion, the burnout, the sense of losing ourselves in the process. Even the strongest trees can’t survive in depleted soil forever.

Nature has its own way of adapting to struggle. When soil lacks nutrients, trees send their roots deeper, searching for what they need. Fungi form symbiotic relationships with plants, sharing resources to help them survive. After storms, broken branches heal, and new growth emerges in unexpected places.
In the same way, when doctors face difficult conditions, they adapt, support one another, and find ways to keep going. But just as even the strongest trees can’t survive in completely barren soil, no amount of resilience can make up for an environment that doesn’t provide what’s needed.

The lesson from nature? Struggles are inevitable, but survival isn’t just about individual strength—it’s about the system, the connections, and the support around us. When those things are in place, growth isn’t just possible; it’s unstoppable.

Because when the soil is right, we don’t just stand. We flourish. 🌳