Growth Through Suffering: Beautiful Blossoming

Abstract

Within this piece, I decided to hand draw 16 different roses to display the diversity of the 16 different personalities that a person may be categorized into. I chose roses to symbolize my message as the contrast between the beauty of the petals and the pain of the thorns was a great representation of how something beautiful could blossom despite adversities and challenges.  The rose petals also have different layers of colors to provide a complexity analogous to the complexity of a patient’s story beyond the physical pain they might initially describe. I chose only four colors to color each layer as these four colors correspond to the four dimensions of wellness: mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical. These dimensions are all involved in one’s degree of pain and suffering.

In addition, the four different colors of the thorns signify the four different types of pain a patient might experience, including acute pain, chronic pain, neuropathic pain, and nociceptive pain. In this piece, some thorns are thicker and sharper than others, and some include a blend of colors to signify the diversity of pain a patient might experience. 

I chose to provide two different backgrounds within this piece, as the background is what surrounds the rose. The contrast of light versus dark signifies how much support a patient may have or where they might be at a point in their life. In addition, some types of pain may feel darker for others even though one’s pain might be categorized as the same as another. This is what leads to different levels of suffering.

In this piece, I wanted to include the idea of unity as well. Each of these roses is different, but at the end of the day, they are still roses. We may all have different personalities, different types of pain we are enduring and different levels of suffering, but physicians and patients can come together to relieve this pain. This, therefore, ties this piece into medical humanities as it is essential for a patient and doctor to communicate and navigate through the layers of a patient’s story. This unity helps fill the gap between a mundane medical diagnosis and the relief of a patient’s suffering. It allows a provider not only to cure but to better care for, empathize with, and heal their patient, and it allows their patient to grow through their suffering and blossom beautifully.