A human life has seasons much as the earth has seasons, each time with its own particular beauty and power. And gift.

Rachel Naomi Remen

Its Own Beauty

Topic: The Natural World

A human life has seasons much as the earth has seasons, each time with its own particular beauty and power. And gift. By focusing on springtime and summer, we have turned the natural process of life into a process of loss rather than a process of celebration and appreciation. Life is neither linear nor is it stagnant. It is movement from mystery to mystery. Just as a year includes autumn and winter, life includes death, not as an opposite but as an integral part of the way life is made.

The denial of death is the most common way we all edit life. Despite the power of technology to reveal to us the nature of this world, death remains the ultimate unknown, impervious to the prodding finger of science. We might well ask if anything which cannot be addressed in scientific terms is really worthy of our attention. Yet most of the things that give life its depth, meaning, and value are impervious to science.

Rachel Naomi Remen

Rachel Naomi Remen was born on February 8, 1938, in New York, New York. Her upbringing, rich in diverse religious influences, including the teachings of Saint Luke the Physician and the wisdom of her grandfather, an Orthodox rabbi, instilled in her a respect for the healing power of storytelling and the human spirit. This eclectic spiritual background guided her toward a medical career that extends beyond treating physical ailments, focusing on the holistic understanding and nurturing of individuals.

As a pediatrician who embraced integrative medicine, Remen became a pivotal figure in medical education. She is a Clinical Professor Emeritus at UCSF School of Medicine and a Professor of Family Medicine at Wright State University. In 1991, she founded the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (RISHI), carving a niche for healthcare professionals eager to blend compassion with clinical practice. Her course, The Healer’s Art, reflects her holistic approach, influencing medical students globally to adopt professionalism and empathy as core values.

Remen's literary contributions, including her bestselling books "Kitchen Table Wisdom" and "My Grandfather’s Blessings," resonate with readers worldwide, available in 23 languages. These narratives intertwine the human experience with the healing power of connection, showcasing her belief in the interplay between diverse spiritual traditions and medicine. Her home, adorned with Buddhas, mirrors her inclusive spiritual journey, embracing elements from various faiths that underscore her holistic approach to healing. Despite her chronic illness, Remen's work has garnered significant recognition, underscoring her commitment to a medicine that cares for the soul as much as the body, a testament to her belief in the universal capacity for healing and connection.

Judaism

Remen, Rachel Naomi. Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal. 10th anniversary ed., Riverhead Books, 2006.

Rachel Naomi Remen

Theme: Beauty

About This Rachel Naomi Remen Quotation [Commentary]

Rachel Naomi Remen writes that “a human life has seasons much as the earth has seasons, each time with its own particular beauty and power. And gift.” No part of a lifetime is outside this pattern. It is unrealistic to demand that our inner life remain “springtime and summer.” When we remember that every season carries its own “beauty and power. And gift,” we become less afraid of change and less ashamed of quieter, darker times.

Rachel Naomi Remen notes that by “focusing on springtime and summer, we have turned the natural process of life into a process of loss rather than a process of celebration and appreciation.” When we cling to youth, productivity, and visible success, then aging, limitation, and grief feel like failure. She answers this by saying that life is “neither linear nor is it stagnant. It is movement from mystery to mystery.” “Autumn and winter” are not mistakes but part of “the way life is made.” Death itself is “not as an opposite” to life, but “an integral part” of it.

Much of our difficulty comes from “the denial of death,” our effort to edit out what remains “impervious to the prodding finger of science.” Yet “most of the things that give life its depth, meaning, and value are impervious to science.” Beauty belongs here: it cannot be measured or controlled, but it can be welcomed. To live by this teaching is to stop editing our story to include only spring and summer, and to begin to “celebrate and appreciate” all the seasons of a human life, trusting that each one brings its own “particular beauty and power. And gift.”

Rachel Naomi Remen On Beauty

For Rachel Naomi Remen, beauty is woven into the very way life is made. She writes that “a human life has seasons much as the earth has seasons, each time with its own particular beauty and power. And gift,” and she resists our tendency to focus only on “springtime and summer.” When we do that, she says, we turn the natural course of things into “a process of loss rather than a process of celebration and appreciation.” Beauty, for her, is not limited to youth, health, or outward success; it is present in “autumn and winter” as well, in aging, illness, and even death, which she calls “an integral part” of life rather than its opposite. She points out that “most of the things that give life its depth, meaning, and value are impervious to science,” and beauty belongs in that category: something we recognize in moments of honesty and presence, when we allow all the seasons of a human life to reveal their particular “beauty and power. And gift.”

Its Own Beauty

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