Remen’s patient, who had been very afraid of her upcoming cancer surgery to the point of having put it off for months, had finally gone in to see the surgeon. He was Japanese, and he had made her a beautiful white paper crane, eight inches across. Remen’s patient told her, “The man who is going to operate on me tomorrow can make such a thing with his hands. And he made it for me. How could I possibly not heal?”
Remen writes, “I have wondered for years why some surgeons have far better outcome data than others who are equally well trained,” adding, “Perhaps some have found their own way to strengthen the will to live in their patients long before they meet them in the operating room.”
The surgeon had taken the time to create something beautiful–and one can create beauty with caring, it doesn’t have to be something physical–but he had given her a tangible, visual manifestation of his wanting her to be well.
Like we who knit do with yarn ourselves. There is great power for good in the work of our hands with our hearts.
(With thanks to Brynn, who, while in elementary school, made me this paper crane to wish me better while I was in the hospital. Five years later, I keep it proudly on display on our organ.)