Kitchen Table Welcome.

Have you ever read this book?

If you haven't, you should. I use this book as required reading for the M4 medical student writing elective.

Oh, and the only thing more awesome than this book is the lady who wrote it. Her name is Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen and she is . . .uh. . . hello. . .all kinds of awesome. She is the founder of the Institute for the Study of Health & Illness (ISHI.) ISHI is responsible for things like The Healer's Art Course, Remembering The Heart of Medicine, and the Finding Meaning in Medicine groups that meet all over the country. She is definitely my kind of people.

I met her at a conference this week focused entirely around Sustaining Caring Attitudes in Medicine. I even got to hear her speak. Yes! But that's not all. . . .I sat next to her and chatted her up about this, that, and even the other.  And let me tell you--she listens as beautifully as she writes and teaches.

So. Awesome.

Seeing as she is totally one of my major role models in medicine, I was a wee bit excited to meet her. Just a wee bit. I was really trying not to act like an overzealous, supergiddified fan because that pretty much sums up how I was feeling at the moment.

Uh yeah.

coaching myself to be cool.

But you know? She was super gracious and treated me like I was the one with an ultra-famous NY Times Bestseller and an internationally recognized curriculum that instills caring attitudes in our learners.

There's nothing like meeting someone who's kind of a big deal. . . .but who doesn't act like one.

I met one of my she-roes, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, this past week. And guess what? She met me, too.

Yay.

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