Service has a life of its own. A single act of kindness may have a long trajectory and touch those we will never meet or see.

Rachel Naomi Remen

Service Has a Life of Its Own

Topic: Serving Others

Service has a life of its own. A single act of kindness may have a long trajectory and touch those we will never meet or see. Something that we casually offer may move through a web of connection far beyond ourselves to have effects that we may have never imagined. And so each of us may have left far more behind us than we may ever know.

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.

Science and Spirituality

Remen, Rachel Naomi. My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging. Riverhead Books, 2001.

Rachel Naomi Remen

Theme: Serving

About This Rachel Naomi Remen Quotation [Commentary]

Rachel Naomi Remen offers a clear invitation to reconsider the reach of our actions. “Service has a life of its own,” she writes, grounding the idea that kindness moves beyond our control. When she says, “A single act of kindness may have a long trajectory and touch those we will never meet or see,” she points to the possibility that what we offer may continue beyond us. In this view, service is not limited to the moment or the visible outcome. It moves outward, often without our awareness, carried by the connections that quietly link us to others.

Rachel Naomi Remen continues: “Something that we casually offer may move through a web of connection far beyond ourselves.” With this, she underscores that even an unplanned gesture may travel farther than we expect. Service does not depend on size or scale, but on presence. Its value isn’t measured by immediate effects, but by the way it becomes part of something larger. These acts, though small or unnoticed, can find their way through relationships and moments we never witness.

She closes with a quiet acknowledgment: “each of us may have left far more behind us than we may ever know.” This is not about legacy, but about connection. Our actions do not end with us. They carry forward, touching others in ways we cannot track. Through this lens, service is not a task or duty, but a living current—often invisible, but real. In trusting that even one act of kindness matters, we allow our lives to join that wider flow.

Additional Quotations by Rachel Naomi Remen

“A blessing is not something that one person gives another. A blessing is a moment of meeting, a certain kind of relationship in which both people involved remember and acknowledge their true nature and worth, and strengthen what is whole in one another. By making a place for wholeness within our relationships, we offer others the opportunity to be whole without shame and become a place of refuge from everything in them that are not genuine. We enable people to remember who they are.”

—Rachel Naomi Remen. My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging. Riverhead Books, 2001.

“Finding meaning does not require us to live differently; it requires us to see our lives differently.”

—Rachel Naomi Remen. My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging. Riverhead Books, 2001.

“Perhaps finding the right protection is the first responsibility of anyone hoping to make a difference in this world. Caring deeply makes us vulnerable. You cannot move things forward without exposure and involvement, without risk and process and criticism. Those who wish to change things may face disappointment, loss, or even ridicule. If you are ahead of your time, people laugh as often as they applaud, and being there first is usually lonely. But our protection cannot come between us and our purpose. Right protection is something within us rather than something between us and the world, more about finding a place of refuge and strength than finding a hiding place.”

—Rachel Naomi Remen. My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging. Riverhead Books, 2001.

“Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us. Not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal. The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are. We are all hungry for this other silence. It is hard to find. In its presence we can remember something beyond the moment, a strength on which to build a life. Silence is a place of great power and healing. Silence is God’s lap.”

—Rachel Naomi Remen. My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging. Riverhead Books, 2001.

“Meaning is a form of strength. It has the power to transform experience, to open the most difficult of work to the dimension of joy and even gratitude. Meaning is the language of the soul. Few works of service can endure unless they are sustained by a lived sense of their meaning and purpose.”

—Rachel Naomi Remen. My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging. Riverhead Books, 2001.

“Service is an experience of mystery, surrender, and awe. A fixer has the illusion of being causal. A server knows that he or she is being used and has a willingness to be used in the service of something greater, something essentially unknown. . . . From the perspective of service, we are all connected: All suffering is like my suffering and all joy is like my joy. The impulse to serve emerges naturally and inevitably from this way of seeing.”

—Rachel Naomi Remen. “Helping, Fixing, or Serving?” Shambhala Sun, Sept. 1999.

Service Has a Life of Its Own

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