Rachel Naomi Remen

They grow because someone truly sees and believes in their potential.

I often think of Rachel Naomi Remen's story about her grandfather, who called her Neshama, which is little beloved soul.

He died when she was very young, and she was worried that without him, God might forget who she really was.

And she told her mother about that years later, and her mother said, "Rachel, I've blessed you every day of your life.

I just didn't have the wisdom to do it out loud." So I love that story because I think we all long to be blessed in that way, to have someone see us beyond our fears and our habits, see to the goodness of our core.

And I also am happy to share that story because I know Rachel Naomi Remen, uh, just passed away recently, and she's such an inspiration.

It gives a moment to honor her goodness.

So let's close together, friends.

That has been coined by many.

Rachel Remen, who's well-known and wrote Kitchen Table Wisdom, she had published an interview and some articles, and it's very embedded in her healer's art program for physicians, that there is this realm of soulful dialogue, soulful care of the person that the physician is engaging with.

And so the lit search produced this many, many appearances of the term soul in all kinds of contexts without really actually producing any tangible definitions.

And through the writing of this research, what I realized was I could not easily offer a piece of research on something called soul medicine.

I think looking back, all of our gatherings served some outward purpose, but underneath all that, the central gift has always been connecting with all of you.

Author and physician Rachel Naomi Remen writes that when she was growing up, people gathered around their kitchen tables to tell her stories.

She said the kitchen table was not simply where people passed time.

It's where stories become connection, where wisdom and compassion are quietly passed from one person to another.

And I'm grateful for all you and Commonweal continue to do in the world.

I know Rachel Remen is such an important part of the Commonweal experience.

She was the person and the mentor I was in conversation with when I was at Commonweal a couple of years ago.

And I talked to her just a few days ago.

We make a clearing in the dense forest, which is beautiful, and it's a blessing to another.

Rachel Naomi Remen, who's, uh, one of my favorite teachers, writers, she's a, a wise woman, mensch.

In her book, Kitchen Table Wisdom, this is another high recommend book, she described, uh, the head of the Department of Family Medicine in some, uh, teaching college and, uh, what a, what type of a person he was.

And the particular story that I loved was of one patient that would come to see him once a week, and she was a homeless woman, and she'd make this steep climb up to his clinic.