At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source.

Rachel Naomi Remen

A Single Source

Topic: Self-Cultivation & Health

At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity.

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. Riverhead Books, 1996.

Rachel Naomi Remen

Theme: Healing

About This Rachel Naomi Remen Quotation [Commentary]

Rachel Naomi Remen starts at the root: “At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source.” She refuses to separate the one who makes from the one who mends. Both draw from “the same mystery,” and that shared origin gives their work coherence and honesty. The point is origin first—where the work comes from and whom it serves.

She then states the link plainly: “When you are an artist, you are a healer.” This is a vocation, not a job title. Any person—clinician or musician, parent or teacher—may create and mend from that depth. What steadies this work is “a wordless trust,” which does not replace skill but anchors it in dignity and care for every person.

Because “the same mystery” undergirds both, “your work and its integrity” do not rest on methods or outcomes alone. To approach healing in this spirit is to treat pain and possibility with the same attentive presence—listening, shaping, and serving from the “single source.” In this way, the creative process restores, and the healing process reveals, joined by trust at their foundation.

Additional Rachel Naomi Remen Quotations

“Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you—all of the expectations, all of the beliefs—and becoming who you are.”

—Remen, Rachel Naomi. Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal. Riverhead Books, 1996, p. 25.

“The healing power of even the most ordinary relationship: the first step toward healing is recognizing it.”

—Remen, Rachel Naomi. Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal. Riverhead Books, 1996, p. 53.

“The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by it is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk through water without getting wet.”

—Remen, Rachel Naomi. My Grandfather’s Blessings, : Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging. Riverhead Books, 2000, p. 95.

“Healing requires that we know ourselves and face up to our struggles with openness, honesty, and love.”

—Remen, Rachel Naomi. Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal. Riverhead Books, 1996, p. 47.

“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.”

—Remen, Rachel Naomi. My Grandfather’s Blessings, : Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging. Riverhead Books, 2000, p. 212.

A Single Source

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