Did You Know? The Silent Choices That Lead Us to the Edge
Health is our most precious asset
Today, I’m stepping away from my usual posts to share with you why I’m so passionate about health and the preventative measures that sustain and protect it. The more I learn about our current health and food systems, the more urgent this message becomes.
Every life is a sacred soul with a beating heart, and it is unfathomable that we so readily sacrifice it for profit. Sixty percent of Americans have a chronic disease, and one in three rely on multiple medications. Autism rates have risen to 1 in 36 children. This is not normal. We have created an unsustainable system.
While genetics play a role in disease, research shows that lifestyle and environmental factors have a far more significant impact on most chronic conditions. Diet, nutrition, movement, stress, and toxin exposure shape our health more than our genes. We are not designed for endless suffering.
My writing and focus is on health maintenance. Although I was trained in the Western medical philosophy of crisis intervention, which we are very good at, prevention is a more peaceful and sustainable approach to well-being.
I was prompted to put my thoughts into words by something I read:
Bob Lewis from Law and Life Lessons writes:
“You know! We know you know!!
The problem is you aren't telling us what you know!
We've all had many life experiences that we hopefully learned a few things from.
So tell us one thing from your life experiences that you know that we need to know to make our lives better.”
This is what I know.
It was one of those nights where sleep slipped away after waking from a dream I can no longer recall. Memories drifted in, unbidden, pulling me back to my days as an ICU nurse. I don’t know why—I was 27 years old then, and many years have passed—but there I was, thinking about all the lives we’ve lost. Not just patients but family and friends, too. So many took their last stand in the ICU, one final rally before letting go.
Working in intensive care was an education like no other—I witnessed a battleground after the war of life.
It stretched me to my limits—mind, body, and soul. They warned us not to get emotionally involved, said it would break us if we did. But how do you not feel when you’re surrounded by so much loss? The mortality rate in our ICU was standard at 30 to 50 percent. That’s a lot of ventilators—a lot of body bags.
Our acute care hospital had three ICUs: surgical, medical, and cardiac. The Cardiac ICU was completely separate and the largest. I primarily worked in the surgical and medical ICUs.
I am not a poet, but these thoughts echoed through the night, refusing to fade as I remembered those days.
What Brought You Here?
There’s a lot I don’t understand.
Mostly why.
Did you know what you did would bring you here?
Did you know excessive drinking would turn your liver to stone,
And one day, stop turning love into laughter,
And joy into song?
Did you know all that smoking would choke your heart,
Quiet the steady drumbeat keeping you alive,
And smother every breath you never thought you’d need?
Did you know the wheel could betray your hands?
That driving drunk would shatter more than metal and glass,
And steal your memories — who you loved, who you were, who you are?
Did you know that poisons meant to kill pests
Would kill your lymphocytes and take your kidneys first?
The price of convenience your body’s silent rebellion.
Did you know all those paint fumes would eat away your lungs,
Layer by layer, breath by breath,
Until you traded colors for hospital walls?
Did you know the sweet lure of processed food
Would leave your pancreas defenseless,
And your bloodstream begging for balance?
Did you know the haze of drugs
Would dull more than pain,
Claiming your liver like an invader in the night?
Did you know the stroke, like lightning,
Would burn your neurons down to ash,
Leaving whole pieces of you behind in the dark?
Did you know?
Intensive Care is full of you who didn’t know.
Or maybe you did and thought you’d bargain with time,
Thought tomorrow would hold your second chance.
Some of you come back from the edge.
Some don’t.
I sit beside you when the machines grow quiet.
Your chest rises like a question mark—
Will you stay, or will you go?
Do you want me to open a window
To let your soul escape?
It’s tradition, they say.
Or maybe it’s mercy.
A soul is light enough to float, they say,
And I wonder—
Did you know?
-M.A. Rollano❤️ If you enjoyed this poem, feel free to share it. Please include attribution. Thank you for reading!
Thank you for this beautiful poem and your care for humanity.
Thank you. I deal mostly in livestock life and death. But most people have little contact with death until they lose a loved one. I feel a lot of the suffering is a lack of real connection with the beautiful world. People living in an urban area who choose not to smoke or drink are still poisoned by pfas and micro plastics, simply by buying food in the grocery store.
I have personally been grateful to the medical community when fixing my boys broken wrist. Health care workers are wonderful people. But just like farmers, doing a critical job for society without adequate support or compensation. Systems are broken, but people are resilient.
Powerful words, thanks again for your precious gift.