Hi Rachel;

I just wanted to thank you for Kitchen Table Wisdom. It came my way recently from someone who knew, better than I, it would be appreciated.

My father gave me Kitchen Table Wisdom and it sat for 10 years on my bookshelf before I allowed it to change my life. Thank you.

Rachael Naomi Remen, would you get a thin book that i wrote, if I send it to you?

Dear Rachel,

Thank you so much for the wonderful note you wrote in my copy of “My Grandfather’s Blessings.” It was a pleasure to meet you last night after your presentation.

I first became aware of you several months ago when I listened to your interview on the podcast of “Speaking of Faith.” Soon after that I borrowed a copy of your book from the library. Nothing I have read has moved me so much, or touched me so deeply, as this wonderful book. I cried over nearly every short chapter. I read my favorites out loud to my wife, and we cried together.

As I mentioned to you last night, my grandfather, Chaim, who was an orthodox Jew, died in the holocaust. He and my aunt Jetti were transported from Berlin to Theresienstadt in the fall of 1942. Chaim perished there about a year later. My aunt was eventually sent to Auschwitz where she was killed.

In 1990 I had what was the most mysterious and life changing experience of my life. If I have a chance to some day I will tell you about it in detail. Suffice it to say, I had a very close encounter with my grandfather’s spirit.

Your book has enabled me to complete the transformation that started eighteen years ago. You have helped me to put science in perspective. You have supported my belief that the human mind is unable to comprehend everything, that science cannot, and never will be able to, explain everything. You have highlighted the mystery, and holiness, of life. For this I will be forever grateful to you as will, I am sure, my grandfather.


Sincerely,
Howard H. Schattner,
Santa Rosa, California

I was struck by a comment by Dr. Remen, as a guest on NPR's program "Speaking of Faith". She mentioned how objectivity in science sometimes clouds our sense of wonder. She told an anecdote that clearly illustrated this: some physicians at the UCSF were presented a patient in whom, for no clear reason, a widely spread cancer just plain disappeared. Instead of feeling a sense of awe, most of these physicians were annoyed that they had no explanation.

This led me to wonder whether my science teachers and those that taught these annoyed physicians meant the same thing by the word "objectivity".

Perhaps hubris clouds the vision some people in the field of science. They lose sight of why the philosophy of science demands objectivity. It is in fact a credo of humility. Objectivity is the ability to recognize and celebrate shared experience. If I experience something once, and no one else can ever experience it, I must humbly accept the validity of other people's non-experience. However, if I experience something now, and someone else experiences that thing at another time, such a reproducible experience is a shared experience. Placing value in shared experience is at the core of our humanity.

The physicians at the UCSF who were studying the case of the unexpected cure certainly had cause for regret - but it was not that there was a cure. They should have regretted their inability to tell future patients and their physicians how to effect such a remission of disease, or how to recognize the kind of disease that regressed on its own, and relieve the patients' anxiety.
Of course, they should celebrate the fact that this patient, this John Doe, who came with no hope, in say, June 1985, became healthy all of a sudden. However, the "subjective knowledge" about treating disease cannot be that "you have to be born a particular John Doe and go to UCSF to die in June 1985 - then you will unexpectedly become healthy". This would be an arrogant dismissal of all the patients who aren't that particular John Doe, and didn't go to die in the UCSF in June 1985, and an arrogant dismissal of the service of all of the physicians whose patients were not so fortunate.

The group of physicians who met to discuss this case was called on to remember of all of their past patients and synthesize the facts with this puzzling cure. They were charged to come up with a guideline for future patients and their physicians. If they couldn't explain the facts, and couldn't come up with such a guideline, their regrets and apologies were to be directed to those future patients. They forgot why they were called to be objective, and felt angry towards the patient who was cured. In fact, they were not objective.
Objectivity in science serves me to pay due respect to the experience of others. It elevates shared ("reproducible") experiences as more credible than my own private experiences. What other reason is there to be objective, but to accept

I have just discovered Dr. Ramen's writings, in searching for the source of this quotation: "After all these years, I have begun to wonder if the secret of living well is not in having all the answers but in pursuing unanswerable questions in good company." Could someone on her staff, or one of you faithful readers, help me with this? I would like to use it in an outreach piece for our church; it so perfectly describes our philosophy. Thank you.

lovely readings.
when is your next book out?
such wonderful wisdom
thankyou so much.
would love to be on your mailing list.
newsletters?

Add me to your mailing list

I remember a wonderful story of tatoos given a young woman after breast cancer by her lover/husband. Where can I find that story - which book, Dr. Remen? Thank you, Lydia Holsten

Your 1993 article on prayer, in the Noetic Sciences Review, expresses well my own views on prayer as communication and on the presence of God (as I term it) as an all-encompassing, ever-present force. As a non-Christian non-Jew I have found it hard to explain to my fellow Unitarian Universalists why I believe in God, why the mystery is important. Being a UU is difficult enough. Your article gives me the words I need to explain my own deeply felt "truths." Thank you so much for putting the link to this article on your website.

Dear Dr. Remen
I just now finished kitchen table wisdom, and felt the urge to find you and tell you what a difference in my world and THE world you make. I found the book on a sale in a bookshop where i was supposed to find books relevant for my education (kindergarten teacher) when i stumbled on you book, 3 times i set it back in the box but each time i ended up coming back to it getting a feeling of needing it. i tried to read about it in the back but could´t concentrate enough with my mind going "you cant afford it, you don´t need it, you don´t even know what it´s about" but i bought it. I recently have been through a lot of changes in my life, a lot of getting to know myself and my past, mourning over the loss of my mother who died of cancer in 89 when i was 7. Now at age 25 i am finally ready to grief over her, and in that process finding my sense of wholeness, in the process many strange coincidences has happened, just when i needed my mother the most i found some old tapes with her voice speaking about how wonderful it is to be pregnant with me. I got to know my mother through these tapes - many years after her death. coincidence? now, through this whole experience I am not so sure anymore. I am convinced there is more to life than meets the eye. After getting all this insight about my life and life- is it a coincidence i just got a sense of needing to get your book? I think i needed to read it to know that it really is true that strange things happen in this wonderful thing called life, and it is ok to think so and accept your own healing power even when it is frightening strong. I have been writing in my diary since i was 13 years old - my life story is already on paper, now i know why it has always felt so important to me to write it down, and why they are so precious to me - they are proof of my life, the stories that shows i have lived. everybody needs to tell their story even when no one is there to listen, i realized that after reading your book, thank you.
I hope one day to be as inspirational to others as you have been to me. - a true Holy Shadow, touching the lives of people many thousand miles away on different continents.
Naja

Dear Dr. Remen,

I have read Kitchen Table Wisdom an am now reading My Grandfather's Blessings, and would love to thank you for the love and joy of life you are able to transmit through your writings. I was diagnosed with cancer at 36 while I was pregnant with my son. Almost two years have passed, and we are both doing well. While Reading Kitchen Table Wisdom a couple of months, I was for the first time able to cry out the tears I had never been able to spill during my sickness, and now I am slowly becoming aware that my life - and therefore I as a person - is valuable, every single moment of it. That is a blessing. And you are a blessing too. To all the people who come across your books. I got my copy from a friend who lives in the US, herself being a cancer patient. She also is a blessing. It is true, like you say, we receive a lot more blessings than we can even think of. I have been sitting here writing for a couple of minutes and look at how many blessings I have already talked about. I never realized that, so this is a blessing too! God Bless You, Dr. Remen! Thanks, Vanessa

Rachel, I have read both books recently and what an inspiration they are to those who are dealing with difficulty in their lives. I have passed your books along to people at my work as well as my family. I hope some day to make one of your speaking arrangements and hear what God as to say to me through your voice. I pray for you and your work and I ask God to continue to bless you as you touch and help others find the light that shines within them. Blessing - Julie

I heard Dr Remen speak several times in the 80's and 90's while living in Marin. Fifteen years later I stumble upon her writing in a time of personal compassion fatigue. It is the right words at the right time to get my soul back on track. Thanks.

Dear Dr. Remen,
We met about 1994 when you were interviewed by my husband for a local show in the Bay Area. We have since spent two years in Israel and are now in Cleveland Ohio. I am a clinical social worker by profession and when in CA I covered a number of clinics and worked at the Diabetes Teaching Center at UCSF. I used a number of stories from your books as jumping off points for engaging others to share their stories. I myself have lived with type 1 diabetes for 40 years and could personally relate to many of the situations and the resulting emotions they touched on.
Today I have a new issue. My now 18 year old son was diagnosed with Crohns Disease about a year and a half ago. He has had a pretty rough go of it and is not yet in remission. He has been on many of the drugs available including Remecade for the last year. He was hospitalized in August folowing his third colonoscopy for IV steroids and to put him on the max dose of Remicade every 5 weeks. In addition to pain he has suffered greatly from fatigue and recently begun to have joint pain in his wrists,knees and shoulders. His medical team has been great and love him as he is a very funny and beautiful person if I do say so myself. His school has not been supportive and has made life even more difficult for him. He has has a lighter load over the last year and a half as his fatigue has been overwhelming and he is not able to get to school at 7:30 in the morning. He has 21/2 more classes to complete after next year altough he is part of the senior class. They have recently informed us that they will not allow him to go through the graduation ceremony with his class as it is policy that if you don't have all the credits you may not walk across the stage with your class. He just wants to go through the motions so that he can feel like a "normal" kid. He knows he will finish his classes remaining on line next year. He is a good student and I can't help but feel he is being punished for being sick. He want's to bring in pictures of his gut to justify his illness. In general he tries to hide his pain and discomfort in order to maintain his dignity. It seems to be backfiring. Any advice you may have to help would be great. The sedation unit where he gets Remicade and gets preped for colonoscopys wants to picket the school. My husband and both respect you, your teachings and your own medical journey a great deal. Thank you for listening.

Deborah (and Jerry)

Hi,Dr. Remen,
I am a female physician and my husband died unexpectedly 5 1/2 years ago. I want to thank you for your clarity, humility and openness to the beauty that reveals itself to us every day in myriad and mysterious ways. As I wandered the aisles of my local bookstore in the months following Kenton's death, I searched desperately for any book that could help me navigate the morass of grief. None of the "grief" books helped heal me...they only provided "normalcy" guages, as in "It is normal at the three month mark to experience such and such..." I discovered your book "My Grandfather's Blessings"on a friend's coffee table, and felt I had found my home, a safe place to fall, a friend who believes in the Mysteries that I have experienced since Kenton's death. I was especially delighted to find that the chinese word for crisis is the combination of "Danger" and "Opportunity." I now wear an amulet with some of Kenton's ashes on a necklace, which is inscribed with those chinese characters on one side and "Be Here Now" on the other. It grounds me and reminds me to face life with an atdeleteude of gradeleteude and adventure.
I am so grateful for having "found" you, as it were...Many of your experiences of being a female in the male dominated world of medicine resonate with me. I have often found myself taking pride in being seen as "one of the guys", at the same time being aware that it also felt somehow diminishing to me. Although i feel we probably arrived at our respective life outlooks from different directions, I feel that we have both arrived at a point where we see beyond this earthly binding, beyond what conventional medicine and science tell us is so, and are open to the possibility that we don't actually die, that Morrie Schwartz was right when he told Mitch Albom that "death ends a life, not a relationship."
Rachel, thank you for reminding me that, even when I ache for Kenton most desperately, when life seems never to hold the promise of joy again, that I have my own quernecia to return to.

I hope that sometime we might meet. Until then, my blessings to you, and thank you for the gift of your wisdom and writings.

sincerely,
Michelle Grua, MD

Dear Dr. Remen, Thank you for the wisdom and hope you share.

My best friend of 20 years, Jennifer, was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer 2 1/2 years ago, when she was 32. Until her diagnosis, was a practicing OB/GYN. Sadly, she was too busy delivering babies and performing surgeries to get her own symptoms checked out. Since then, she has had two surgeries, two years of weekly chemo, and she will have a third surgery on February 20th. Right now she is in terrible pain, despite high doses of morphine, and is suffering tremendously, both physically and emotionally.

I realize you must be extraordinarily busy, and normally I wouldn't do this, but I'm desperate. I would like to ask if you, or one of your staff, could email Jennifer a brief recommendation or two for therapists and/or doctors in the NYC area who share your treatment philosophy, whom she could see for medical and emotional support. Jennifer's email is windsandsunATyahoo.com. If she got a correspondence from you, however brief, it would mean a lot to her.

Whether you are able to or not, please know your book Kitchen Table Wisdom has been a great comfort. All best, Alison

I discovered your work through your interview with Krista Tippet.

I am a lay pastor in the Presbyterian Church USA, and I am concerned that our denomination has lost its sense of awe and wonder at the presence of God.

I am reading "Kitchen Table Wisdom" for the first time; I was greatly blessed by your stories about your grandfather in "My Grandfather's Blessings."

As I read "Kitchen Table Wisdom" I am struck by the sense of worship I feel as I read the stories.

I had my annual physical today. The nurse that does the setup is an incredibly cheerful person. As she was connecting me to the EKG machine, I asked her about her sunny disposition.

She spoke to me about her sense of gradeleteude every day, about how blessed she felt. She spoke to me about her family, and how much she loved them. I asked the question "So you've never had anything difficult to overcome?" She told me no, her daughter has cancer, and has had two serious episodes. Her son is a pharmacist in a high-pressure environment.

But every day she is grateful for another day with them, for another chance to work at a job she loves.

She saw my copy of "Kitchen Table Blessings." "That looks interesting," she said.

I commended it to her reading.

But somehow, I think she is the embodiment of what it says.

Anyway, thank you. I am grateful to have discovered your work and your writing. I have used some of your stories in sermons, and hope others find the healing that I have found in them.

I've been an RN for 31 years, A Unitarian Universalist for 9 years. I work for a public health nursing org. that charges no one (not even an insurance comp.) a fee for service. We were founded on the basis that no one in our town of Tamworth NH would go without healthcare because they couldn't afford it or didn't have access to it. I believe we could serve as a model for rural healthcare. I was asked by my fellowship to speak on service. Your essay " In the Service of Life" defined my message. Thankyou. I'd love to talk with you someday 603-651-9496Sincerely, Jo Anne Rainville

Dr. Rachel
I am a Roman Catholic priest/chaplain. i have shown and given your video about becoming a blessing to many many people. I can not stop watching it myself. You are an truly a blessing and an angel. I am so happy to know you through your video and your writings.
God Bless and keep you in his loving care.

My Rabbi, Marcia Zimmerman, of Temple Israel, Minneapolis, suggested that I write to you. On Sept. 29, 1999, my son Kenny took his life after years of struggling with depression. He was just 23, just graduated college in Culture Studies, was gentle, kind, smart, creative,loved animals and music. I have received signs from him. About a month after the loss, I was reading a book in my bed. No one was home at the time. I heard music "in the air." It was high-pitched, an array of notes, loud and clear, and lasting several seconds. I knew it was a message from my son. I expressed my thanks to him for this "gift" of knowing he's ok and not "gone." Since then, I have received other messages. My cats often stare at something in the room. I believe that is Kenny's spirit. Other signs include lights coming on focusing on an angel in our curio cabinet, lucid dreams, feelings of being lightly touched, seeing a "look-alike" person, and other visits, too many to list. These communications keep me moving forward with my life in peace, hope, and courage. My son is not "gone."

I rec'd your book as a gift...and what a gift!! One after the other, I found comfort in your stories. Dank je wel.

Thank you for this book. I am at a crossroads in my professional life wondering which way to turn and feeling since I don't have a career I am not successful. You have shown me that having a profession does not equal success it's how we receive and give blessings in our lives is success. My niece has been diagnosed with chrohns and my prayers go to her everyday. Thank you for sharing your stories and those who you have met along the path of your life. They have been truly inspirational. Do you speak to lay people or only to health professionals? You could offer so much to so many others. Thank you for My Grandfather's Blessings.

Dear Rachel,
I love your book like a hot cup of tea. I sit with it, cherishing every page, and am coming to a place of understanding where my suffering, although not as severe as many others, still is beginning to be transformed in my mind as a tool, and even a gift for greater intimacy and integrity in my life. Thank you for sharing your work. Thank you for recognizing the marshmallow for what it was, and for moving beyond the white thin rectangle towards what you perceived as your calling, towards the mystical and the mysterious, and for sharing that story with all of us, that we may also be our own great marshmallows!

I am a hospice nurse in a small town in New Zealand and am about to begin my Masters thesis this year. My son , living in the US, heard your interview and emailed me the link.
How wonderous. My thesis (havent quite got the deletele yet) is about the stories of the dying. I write poetry and stories and LISTEN and learn every day from these people as they complete their life journeys. It is such a privilege.Please come to NZ!!