“Rain gear must be in boat! Rain gear no good in cabin!”
Peepsight, Native American Guide, CA, 1972
As a practicing surgeon and department head, both my wife and I will tell you that I struggle with relationships. Not because I do not enjoy engaging with friends but because of the time constraints placed on me by my career and often the sheer emotional and physical exhaustion that tends to overwhelm me at the end of the day. Setting boundaries for my staff, colleagues, and patients allows me to spend time with family and friends and to recover emotionally, spiritually, and physically. This has been a hard lesson to learn. It is not a skill that is taught in medical school or residency, especially since surgical training involves learning to say yes regardless of the circumstance. At the invitation of friends, I took the opportunity to disconnect from practice and reconnect with friends.
Although I consider myself an active individual and enjoy outdoor activities such as fishing, hunting, and hiking, I have either purposefully or subconsciously limited these activities to short, one-day excursions. Either because of family or work, I have never undertaken a long-term outdoor adventure that involved staying overnight and being away from civilization. This fall, I took two separate trips. The two trips had different themes and different perspectives, but both proved to be emotionally and spiritually restorative.
The first trip was with five other men: one I knew through my parish, one I had met years ago at a family camp, and three others I was introduced to at the time of the trip. The five of us travelled to Hackett, Minnesota, to fish Lake of the Woods from the mouth of the Rainy River to Oak Island, which is the only place in the contiguous U.S. north of the 49th parallel on the Canadian border. Lake of the Woods is the premier Walley and Sauger Fishery of the U.S., and the goal for all of us was to catch the legal limit of fish that can be kept for consumption. Dan, my friend who organized the trip, had two requests: first, prepare and share a devotion during the weekend, and second, relax and enjoy the time away.
A shared devotion is no small task, involving study and introspection. The exact definition of a devotion is elusive; it is an activity that is shared by multiple religions and denominations. A devotion is not a doctrinal thesis or scriptural commentary but does require scriptural knowledge, understanding the human condition, and self-awareness. It may be considered a meditation or essay based on one or more verses and their relevance to your life. Devotions should be constructed in such a way that it will enhance/contribute to the emotional and spiritual health of those participating. If you are not accustomed to this type of exercise, it can be daunting, not only because it forces you to look inward, but it also requires that you share a portion of yourself that is intensely personal.
Although I will not share the experiences of my friends, I will comment that no matter what your challenges or problems are, there is someone who has gone through something similar, and sharing the burden and the joys will enrich both your lives. The opportunity to be introspective and discern who I am, what I believe, and how it affects my life was incredibly useful. My only advice is to be present, be grateful, be gracious, be humble, and above all, be a good listener.
The other important part of this trip was obviously fishing. Words of advice for the uninitiated: One, if you want to catch fish, you plan to get up early in the morning. The boat leaves promptly at 7 a.m., and your friends will make sure that stragglers are harassed. Two, you will be gone the entire day; whatever you may need, including water, rain gear, etc., must be packed and present. You are not coming back to shore to retrieve a forgotten item. Three, in unknown waters, a guide is of immeasurable value. If you think you know where the fish are or what they are taking for bait/lures on a 1,700 square mile lake with 65,000 miles of shoreline and 14,500 islands, you are delusional. Four, brush up on your corny jokes and stories. Eight hours on a boat with six other people is a time to share: the worse the joke, the more embarrassing the story, the better. Just like Vegas, what is said on the boat stays on the boat. Five, there is a reason that it is called fishing and not catching. Our guide selected down riggers for trolling with a variety of different colored crank baits. There was a small amount of complaining on the part of some guys who felt that jigging or bait casting was more to their liking. Our guide was polite but firm: Do you want to catch fish, or would you like to sit in the boat for eight hours and do nothing? The guide was correct; the fishing was spectacular. From a surgical point of view, my highlight was getting to remove a treble (three-pronged hook) from the hand of one of my friends. Piece of advice that few will take: Wear gloves when fishing!
The second trip was with two other friends to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA), a 1,700 square mile wilderness area administered by the U.S. Forest Service entirely in the northeastern corner of Minnesota. BWCA encompasses approximately 1,100 lakes, 1,200 miles of canoe routes, and 2,000 semideveloped campgrounds that consist of a rough boat landing, tent pad, fire grate/fireplace, and latrine (hopefully with a view and a gentle breeze). If the first trip was one of planned spiritual renewal in luxury, the second was its opposite. Wilderness excursions involve careful planning, expertise, and physical endurance. Depending on how far you want to enter and what lakes you want to visit, this involves paddling and portaging. Portages are rough paths at best, often muddy and/or littered with rocks ranging from the size of a large watermelon or pumpkin down to the size of a baseball. The amount of material you pack, and its total weight, is of the utmost importance. Everything you will need for shelter, sleep, eating, travel, and leisure needs to be both packed in and packed out. You need to set a limit for the amount you will carry and know everything down the ounce. There are no garbage cans. Garbage other than some food scraps and paper cannot be burned and must be removed when you leave camp. This is an exercise in discipline.
Although you are not bound by a clock, camping does have a daily rhythm into which you will sink. You will usually rise with the sun, either from daylight or the sound of birds and animals being more active, and you will go to sleep shortly after dark. One thing that will strike you after a day or so is how much noise and interference is in our lives. You will not hear a human voice unless you are camping with someone. Other than your headlamp, it is completely dark except for the dim fire, moon, and stars, and it is quiet enough to hear the steam and gases leaving wood on the fire as it burns. It is truly a place of quiet and solitude where you can be alone with your thoughts.
I am glad I took the opportunity to do both trips. If I get the chance to repeat either of them, I will. When I returned home and told my wife about the BWCA, she asked why I would ever repeat a vacation that required so much work. On reflection, I would say that leisure is not the absence of work but rather time and space for finding meaning. One of the weaknesses of medical education is that you spend years learning critical thinking and little, if any, learning discernment. Taking time to look inward and then share with friends as well as having time alone in the quiet of nature was extremely gratifying. I would love to tell you that it made work easier, it did not, and I did not expect it to. Those struggles will always be there; it is the nature of medical practice and caring for sick patients. The best part of these trips was that they gave me permission to take time off and set the cares of the practice aside. I am going to do this more often, and for that, I am grateful.
How often do you disconnect fully to restore clarity, perspective, and purpose in medicine? Share in the comments.
Dr. Charles Watts is a neurosurgeon practicing in St. Louis Park, MN. He is the department head of neurosurgery within the Health Partners system. His practice interests are minimally invasive spine surgery, pituitary tumors, and brain tumors. He also has research interests in quality, particularly the reduction of surgical site infections and other peri-operative complications as well as biophysical chemistry having completed a PhD in this field of study. He is married with four children, and likes to stay physically active with a variety of hobbies/interests outside of medicine. Dr. Watts is a 2025–2026 Doximity Op-Med Fellow.
Image by MikhailPopov / Shutterstock
