Isak Dinesen

Please call me Isak. My pen name affords me greater freedom. I’m a Canadian amateur writer, avid Medium and ILLUMINATION reader since 2020. I’m a atheist, a wife, MD physician, mother and grandmother in that order.

I love words, how they can be sequenced like DNA, how they make the sounds of ravens and rain, how they stain a scroll, how they are sequestered in a palimpsest and how they are insinuated into songs. Five decades of words I’ve committed to paper collected on my travels such as papyrus and parchments I make from pressed flowers. My journals are an amalgam of calligraphy, botanicals, images, sketches, quotes and my own cipher.

My father continues to be my inspiration. In my nascent home words were sacred; sacraments to be broken and spilled; mediating grace. We did our utmost to “walk our talk” having the burden of being a public family. My father is still canoeing and working in his 80’s as an internationally sought applied theologian. His books are translated into 10 languages from Indonesian to Romanian. Interpreters augment and situate his ideas. So too in Medium there is serendipity in the fusion of languages.

My first and only foray into published writing was his request for 5 articles integrating spirituality into the everyday. Being an atheist was and still is inconsequential. With my knowledge of physiology and sojourning with metaphor I took on topics of Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Child birth, Breastfeeding and New Reproductive Technologies. Then I had a third child, a deal struck with 5 conditions including an annual trip to Hawai’i and vasectomy (not mine).

Here’s a throw back to my first word “Hot” as I was acutely aware of danger, my high chair being adjacent to the stove in our micro flat. My first written word was

L👁👁K. (My inaugural emoji)

Currently I volunteer on 3 inter-professional clinical ethics committees. I assist with writing ethics case consultations, staff education and institutional policy development.

I’ve pioneered Alzheimer Cafes in Canada. For people living with dementia and their caregivers we host multi site monthly indoor picnics with music, sing a longs and educational interviews. The camaraderie rivals Medium.

Currently I’m involved in research to equip various cultural communities to have discussions about values, beliefs and wishes as they age with Dementia and the usefulness of Living Wills.

At the university I am an affiliate of the Neuroethics Core. I teach and develop post graduate curriculum integrated for all 14 health disciplines(Medicine to Audiology). After completing online modules students unpack narrative cases in small inter professional tutorials. Topics I learn alongside students include Ethics, Professionalism, Indigenous Cultural Safety and Humility, Collaborative Decision-making, Informatics and Resilience (maintaining mental health for students).

Medium is life enhancing; an unprecedented experience of intellectual hospitality, compassion, listening to the sorrowful reeds of others and being heard within a spectrum of issues, cultures and ethnicities. In these 3 months I’ve read only two catty responses, one being mine for which I was raised from prostration by graciousness.

I enjoy paring down writing to its fundamental elements, while preserving understanding but hoping the deliberate gaps provoke questions.

Because I read at the pace of speech, I write much less than most. Topics include; Imagist poetry, business/organizational ethics, disability, occupational burnout, mental health, resilience, dementia, addiction, living wills, parenting, whistleblowing and psychological perils of BoTox.

I seek to share and confirm information, invite discussion, give permission for others to speak on stigmatized topics and catharse. Encouraging other writers one by one by responding personally to their work is for me the pulse of Medium and ILLUMINATION.

My imperative is to live wholeheartedly, writing with gratitude and hope. I was born with an anatomic abnormally requiring 22 surgeries. I have precarious health that can variably restrict my activities. Fortunately I can count on my soul which has been restored through treatment of mental health issues. If on any given day I can’t get out for the invigorating solitude that meets me on a walk in the woods, well then I am fortunate to have more time for writing. My friends in other places in the world have had that privilege curtailed. I walk twice in their stead.

Here’s an eclectic group of writers I appreciate, some offering enthralling synergy between their mother tongue and English.

Thank you for your interest. I do very much look forward to reading your work and engaging in dialogue.

Health, happiness and harmony for you and yours.