“One thing I can say is the 30 or 40 worst days of my life have all been there in my mountains—tragedies, awful days, incredible fear. The worst days have been there, but there’s not one time I felt I wanted to be anywhere else in the world but there. [ . . . ]

I think we often put happiness and joy together. “I’m joyful,” “I’m happy”—it’s always kind of the same thing. But happiness is an emotion, right? It kind of waxes and wanes. You know, when it’s sunny out today, I feel happy. I had a cheeseburger (I haven’t had one in 10 years)—I feel happy. And then you’re sad because it’s raining out, or you had a bad day and you’re sad, or something bad happened, or you had a bad outcome with a patient. You feel sad. All those emotions are there. I’m happy today; five minutes later, I’m sad because something bad happened.

Joy is the feeling that you are where you’re supposed to be. It’s a feeling that doesn’t change. You get up in the morning saying, “I am where I’m supposed to be. What I’m doing today has meaning.” Joy says, what I’m doing makes my life meaningful. I have a job that is fulfilling. And I think that’s a tremendous human need—if you can have a job, or have something which gives you meaning, you can get through anything. [ . . . ] If you have meaning, you can have joy. I think that’s the distinction I try to draw.”