This is the time of year when, in the Jewish tradition, our lives are examined. We bring the previous year to mind in order to find its truth. What is the truth about myself? Were my words and actions what I meant them to be last year at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when I made resolutions for the New Year? Were there times my words were not as kind and compassionate, as patient as I wanted them to be (ask my teenage daughter...

There are times when we stop doing and focus on being. We spend time with ourselves looking inward instead of outward. For physicians this is unlike most of our lives, in which attention, focused primarily on the needs of others, drives us in an often hectic schedule in which any reflection must be fitted into other activities.

Thus we have short times for thinking when we are driving, as we walk from one room to another,...