Hours, Life and Observations

Today I drove to school and marveled at the sunrise.
It was beautiful. It was red and pink over the hills before the mountains and the sun poked through the overcast clouds and spilled down over the pale green of the fields coated in light snow.
It illuminated little houses and farms on the rolling green hills and left streamers of light coming from the heavens.
It. Was. Wonderful.
Simply put, Tennessee is far more beautiful than Minnesota because of these mountains. Minnesota has some lovely fall color but it's more-or-less on the same elevation, here, it's laid out across the mountains for you to marvel at and it indeed is marvelous.
Luscious reds, intense yellows and muted browns coat the Gap and the mountains surrounding it.
It makes living here a daily experience of enjoying what is around me and helps me maintain balance in my life.
Along my drive to school I pass a small bank and church who share a parking lot where the local farmers market puts up a half dozen or so stalls every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
This morning, as I drove to school, I noticed that the farmer was setting up his stall in the early light.
This evening, as I returned home. I noticed that the farmer was breaking down his stall to go home.
I thought to myself, "wow, that guy really is dedicated, he's putting in some really amazingly long hours. He's been here nearly 10 hrs today."
Then I realized that he wasn't the only one.
It's not that I'm tooting my own horn but I rarely realize what I'm doing here at school. I see it mostly as just me doing whatever I can to do what I need to, to do my best work.
As it turns out, most days... I get to beat the farmer in hours.
I wonder if farmers have the same life as we do as doctors. Early mornings, demands all day, and short rests before returning or if somehow working with the land allows them to live a more paced life. A life based around seasons, sunrises and sunsets and if that in itself isn't the way we really are supposed to live life.
I can safely say from being on the hospital wards late at night and early in the mornings when the hospital is asleep that it seems to me that there is something quite odd about wandering around peoples rooms while they are asleep and you yourself just starting your work day.
I guess this is the life of those who are charged with a such responsibilities.
My professor today, an emergency medicine physician, reminded us that we, starting at the beginning of our schooling and ending at our retirement, will be adding more responsibility throughout our careers. First with lab work and parts of patient care, to a patient's life, to many patient's lives, to perhaps the careers of other physicians and the patient's lives in which they care for.
It ever grows and I can only hope that I stop shortly before I can not handle the next level of responsibility, the fear of over reaching that level is far too fearsome to really fathom.