I’m an explorer.

When I stepped away from medicine, I promised myself I’d remain open to learning anything and everything. Part of it is just that I feel like I’ve missed out on so much of life’s beauty, because I took such a straight-edged path into medicine (the kind most of us doctors traditionally take). The other part is that exploring opens up the mind, and I know that so well now.

My latest exploration involved flowers.

How do I fill up my house with more of them?

How do I do this more affordably?

How do I build my own bouquets?

One of the secret places I buy flowers from? Trader Joe’s.

I practically get everything there, so it’s not that big of a secret.

I buy several different kinds of flowers (I test out different colors and textures of flowers to see which will look best), and then I come home, clean & trim them, and start arranging them together.

One big mess later and I’ve got myself gorgeous bouquets lining up the indoor space of my home.

If you enjoy my healthcare commentary, follow my account on SoMeDocs. I’ll continue to rant, and to circulate the work of my incredibly talented colleagues, as we do so well.

But if you want to see my more frivolous discoveries – the likes of food and flowers and fashion and experiences – you’ll have to follow my second brand, @ drcorriel, and drcorriel.com (which I’m trying to free up time to run).

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this, a beautiful quote I came across today, after being asked for a quote offhand, on a podcast (by anesthesiologist Travis McKay, look out for that episode, out in October), and drawing a blank. It’s by J R R Tolkien and I just love it:

“Not all those who wander are lost.”