Joy in Family Medicine – Stories & Reflections
Lessons, lightbulb moments, and honest reflections from life inside and outside medicine - served with a side of perspective.
Tags: parenting
Showing 4 results:
Childhood Courage
In our early days as a family with one car, my husband's boss would pick him up for work up on a motorcycle. He kept the spare helmet at our house. Our oldest, a toddler at the time, had an instinctual and intense fear of the helmet -- even when Mark was wearing it (wise beyond her years?). This ...
by Dr. Tonya Caylor —
Mar 18, 2026
action
behavior
bravery
breakthrough
challenge
change
childhood
coaching
comfort-zone
confidence
courage
determination
development
empowerment
family
fear
fearlessness
future
goal-setting
growth
habits
inspiration
learning
life-lessons
mindfulness
mindset
motivation
overcoming
parenting
personal-growth
progress
psychology
reflection
resilience
reward
risk
self-growth
storytelling
success
transformation
vision
The Dilemma: Story and Reflection
Many of you have heard me tell how being a great wife landed me in Alaska from Florida in 2007. It has been a fantastic decision. I don't often talk about the fears I had. I worried about moving an 8th grader away from good friends and the sunny beach to an unknown, cold, dark place (the story of...
by Dr. Tonya Caylor —
Jun 10, 2025
adaptation
adjustment
all-or-nothing
binary thinking
career
catastrophizing
compromise
decision making
emotional growth
expansion
fear
flexibility
gray-area
identity
mindset
narrative
opportunity
options
overthinking
parenting
perspective
problem solving
reframing
resilience
self-awareness
success
support
transition
trust
vulnerability
The Youngest Flower Girl: Story and Reflection
I'm not sure every parent of a flower girl fears how the ceremony will go, but my husband and I sure did years ago. You see, our oldest was invited to be the flower girl for 2 of our med school classmates when she was barely three years old. We had many voices of experience say she's too young. A...
by Dr. Tonya Caylor —
Jun 10, 2025
balance
big picture
celebration
ceremony
detail-orientation
embarrassment
feedback
focus
humanity
humor
hyperfocus
joy
learning
memory
mindfulness
mistake
negativity bias
overfocus
parenting
perfectionism
perspective
presence
reflection
regulation
self-awareness
self-compassion
social cues
storytelling
worry
zooming-out
Hurricanes and Turtles, Story and well...
Our brains are pretty entertaining places - especially in the middle of the night - mine offers me random memories seemingly out of nowhere for no reason.
Last night I remembered chasing down a turtle during Hurricane Ivan in 2004 in Pensacola, FL. My husband was operating. The girls and I were h...
by Dr. Tonya Caylor —
Jun 10, 2025
animals
chaos
connection
curiosity
disaster
empathy
fear
heroism
humanity
humor
imagination
impulsivity
instincts
learning
memory
middle of the night
midnight thoughts
nature
nostalgia
parenting
perspective
playfulness
randomness
reflection
resilience
spontaneity
storytelling
surprise
unplanned
unpredictability
Joy in Family Medicine – Stories & Reflections