Caregiving is older than medicine—and just as vital. Drawing insight from characters like Cordelia and Samwise, this Storyline reflection explores how caregiving has always required presence, sacrifice, and courage. It’s still hard. And still beautiful.

Inspired by Hemingway’s famous line, this reflection explores what it means to be "strong at the broken places." From trauma-informed care to narrative medicine and the limits of AI, we explore how healing happens not in perfection, but in presence—and how the most meaningful care is always rooted in relationship.

In a world obsessed with doing more, faster, Pooh reminds us that being still and paying attention might just be the most important work of all.

As patients, we often feel the pace of modern medicine—short visits, rushed decisions, more screen than face time. Behind the buzzwords of “value-based care” lies a deeper tension: we want healthcare to focus on real outcomes, but the system still rewards volume. What if the wisdom we need isn’t in doing more, but in noticing more?