There are so many sorrowful events going on in the world. And are so many people who demand immediate answers. Immediate solutions.
While I agree with that sentiment and the need for solutions, I’m sure the work of healing a broken world will not be a quick fix.
We may have to keep asking questions and patiently waiting until the answers come.
When the answer comes, then the next right thing will probably be to ask more questions, such as, “How do I do that?”
Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., is a Professor of Family Medicine at Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine and a Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF School of Medicine. She is the founder of the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness. She is one of the best-known early pioneers of holistic and integrative medicine and one of the founders of the Cancer Help Program at Commonweal. As a medical educator, therapist, and teacher, she has enabled thousands of physicians to find personal meaning and purpose in medicine and patients to remember their power to heal. She wrote a book I highly recommend entitled Kitchen Table Wisdom.
She shared this story as she heard it from her grandfather, an Orthodox rabbi, in the podcast “On Being” with Krista Tippet (Which I also highly recommend:)
“In the beginning there was only the holy darkness, the Ein Sof (No End), the source of life. And then, in the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. And then, perhaps because this is a Jewish story, there was an accident, and the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke. And the wholeness of the world, the light of the world was scattered into a thousand and thousands fragments of light, and they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day.
Now, according to my grandfather, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world. It’s a very important story for our times. And this task is called tikkun olam in Hebrew. It’s the restoration of the world.
And this is, of course, a collective task. It involves all people who have ever been born, all people presently alive, all people yet to be born. We are all healers of the world. And that story opens a sense of possibility. It’s not about healing the world by making a huge difference. It’s about healing the world that touches you.”
I love mythology and, most of all, creation stories. Every faith tradition has a creation story. Some sort of brokenness, sin, or error is rather germane to most of them. As is a call for humanity to lift each other up and/or do right in the world, despite that brokenness.
I love that in this story, the brokenness has a deep vein of the potential possibility of light and love in every broken person or heart-breaking event. I know that concept to be an absolute Truth.
Dr. Remen’s work is chaplain-like, entailing much compassionate listening and question asking. She intuitively seems to know that everyone has a capacity for resilience and wisdom. She has a knack for drawing it out. She says there is much to learn about living from those who suffer from illness.
One of the questions she often asks her patients and students is, “Where do you find your strength?” This is somewhat counter-intuitive to how providers are trained, more often asking about symptoms.
I think it’s an excellent question to ask, not only in my clinical work but also of myself.
When we ask such a question, the answer may not be immediately evident.
That’s not a problem; immediate answers are not obligatory.
I think what is important is to keep asking, “Where do I find my strength?” until the answer comes.
I thank you for listening, be blessed this day.
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