Journal of Sacred Work

The Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi Days 272-273

October 4th is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology and beloved by many. I offer this reflection in his honor.

The story of St Francis embracing the leper is one that posed a challenge for Francis and offers many parallels to the challenges of our times. 

In Assisi during Francis’s life, leprosy was a terrible plight for those afflicted with the disease. They were excluded from society and banished beyond the city limits and were viewed as untouchables to be avoided and shunned. As a young man, Francis feared and was repulsed by people with this disease.

However, one day when travelling he encountered a person with leprosy on the side of the road in need of assistance. Francis first inclination was to turn away, yet something about the man moved him and he felt compelled to get down off his horse and then he reached out to embrace the man. In that moment he experienced a profound opening of his heart. Instead of seeing an outcast he saw the light of Christ gazing back at him. This experience awakened Francis to follow a limitless call to love and to be of service to others.

Caregivers move towards those who suffer rather than turning away. I hold you in the highest esteem and I thank you for giving your hearts to service with your skills, expertise, and kind spirits and to accompany people in their time of need. Thank you for the many ways you live love and help to ease the way for others.  

With deep gratitude,

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Photo Source: The Franciscan Spirit Blog

"I Own Everything I See" - Days 267-271

 The title quote is from my saintly, mother-in-law, Marian Lokvam.* As a hyper-visual "see-er" that line became a favorite. I did not have to own a field of flowers to smell them or a car to enjoy riding in it. 

  Is seeing enough or do we have to "own"? When we own, what do we have actually have?

   The power in Marian's comment arises when we ask more deeply: What do we own? And its companion suggestion that maybe we never really own anything or anyone; that the very idea of "pride of ownership" triggers murders, wars and personal agony.

   Look at our ownership language: My house. My car. My job.

   Of people: My wife. My children. My sister. My friends.

   What happened to "my" mother, you first-borns, when the your sibling arrived?

   In a hospital, "My nurses" sounds different depending on whether it is spoken by a nursing director or a patient. 

   When I disagree with a doctor's recommendation I am always surprised when they say, "Well. It's your body." Were they subconsciously thinking my body was theirs?

   Why did the feminist movement gain traction with the phrase "It's My Body"? Because my fellow males so often abused women's rights that consciousness needed to be raised and laws changed. 

   Ownership requires at least two adjectives: "privilege and permission." I never really owned any "thing" or "person."  I was simply granted privileges and permissions for some period. 

   So long as I thought too literally that Tyler and Tia were MY children, their successes and failures became "mine." Marian's enlightened "owning-by-seeing" frees up healthier relationships. It sends jus again, and always for the first time, to Kahlil Gibran's oft-stated and rarely followed wisdom, quoted in part: 

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you... 

-Erie Chapman

P.S. Since writing this a thief named Covid stole "my" sense of smell and should return it, right?

Photo: Marian Lokvam, at right, helping Kirsten on our wedding day - 1966

The Greatest Hitter In The World Days 265-266

“I do have reasons for hope: our clever brains, the resilience of nature, the indomitable human spirit, and above all, the commitment of young people when they're empowered to take action.”
~Jane Goodall

Inner conversations are going on all the time in our minds. In an attempt to keep us safe thoughts can arise to alert us to perceived dangers.  All of us have a internal voice, I have a voice in my head that is often critical and admonishing. Thoughts naturally give rise to emotions and for me feeling of anxiety that manifests in my body, perhaps as a knot in my stomach or tension in my shoulders etc.

It helps to settle our nervous systems with mindfulness practices. Pausing to focus on our breathing is a simple yet profound way to return to a sense of calm, focus and presence. In this way, we can listen to the inner voice that is loving and compassionate and let the fear-based thoughts float on by, with awareness that these are only thoughts “that are real but not necessarily true”, as Tara Brach would have us remember. Gradually, the voice of Love is the one we listen to, the voice that is real and true, for we are beloved.

This brings me to recall Rumi’s fantastic poem called”

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each as been sent
as a guide from beyond.
by Rumi, translated/interpreted by Coleman Barks

And Richard Rohr would have us remember that “this too…everything belongs.”

These days I try to notice when an unkind word reverberate in my head, I try to acknowledge it, sometimes even say thank you for trying to safeguard me and then offer myself a kind word, a touch of my hand on my cheek and a loving thought.

I think this idea of a replacement picture is very important in fostering well-being and a sense of optimism. The following one-minute video feature a child who does this instinctively and is guaranteed to will bring a smile to your face!

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

~Louisa May Alcott

 

Liz Sorensen Wessel

"Eating the Sun" - Days 260-264

For caregivers, light is an energy cultivated for curing. Managed channels of electricity enable doctors to diagnose with imaging and to treat with lasers. 

The greater Light of Healing beyond curing preceded and supersedes all of that. Scientists may have sought to diminish its spiritual aspects. But they are powerless to diminish its meaning in the broad arc of human existence.  

A contemporary writer whose work has captured my spirit is Maria Popova. Her book, Figurings, is transformative. Her gifts continue through her weekly column in Marginalian. I recommend it to anyone interested in seeing how one writer, regularly offering her gifts and those of other artist's. She and they lift life's quality as they dissect important ideas and illuminate Many of Beauty's most exquisite details. 

This week, Popova aimed the the laser of her genius at the subject of how we see, and cited an expert unknown to me. One with a spectacular gift and a terrible curse.

First, his gift:

"No one has written about what it takes to see," Popova wrote, "— and how to do the looking — more poignantly than Jacques Lusseyran (September 19, 1924–July 27, 1971) in his stirring memoir And There Was Light.

"Looking back on his blissful early childhood, Lusseyran recounts his formative enchantment with the world:

  "'Light cast a spell over me. I saw it everywhere I went and watched it by the hour… flowing over the surface of the houses in front of me and through the tunnel of the street to right and left. This light was not like the flow of water, but something more fleeting and numberless, for its source was everywhere. I liked seeing that the light came from nowhere in particular, but was an element just like air. We never ask ourselves where air comes from, for it is there and we are alive. With the sun it is the same thing.
   "There was no use my seeing the sun high up in the sky in its place in space at noon, since I was always searching for it elsewhere. I looked for it in the flickering of its beams, in the echo which, as a rule, we attribute only to sound, but which belongs to light in the same measure. Radiance multiplied, reflected itself from one window to the next, from a fragment of wall to cloud above. It entered into me, became part of me. I was eating sun.'"

Then, Popova reveals the curse. Lusseyran, the genius of light, had been struck blind at the age of seven.

It is the answer to stories like these, and the questions they raise, that sends me to her column every week.

We cannot look directly into the sun. But Lusseyran says he could eat it. In the summer of 2018 I photographed someone doing that. Today, I named that image "Eating the Sun".

-Erie Chapman

"Eating the Sun" - by Erie Chapman, 2018

The Thin Places Days 259-253

Nature has so much to teach us,  if we let it! In Celtic spirituality there is reference to the "thin places" or a space in which we encounter the sacred. 

Perhaps we come into a state of heightened awareness of a divine presence.  One of those moments that you cherish. 

When has the Spirit caught you?

Walking in the quite hush of the forest and listening to birdsong... 

or in a conversation that creates connection...

or gazing up at the stars and awakening mystery...

Maybe when you are with friends and share a good laugh...

Perhaps in a poignant time of loss...

or a tender gesture of love...

maybe releasing an old hurt or grudge and experiencing forgiveness...of ourselves and others...

With these thoughts in mind I offer a blessing of Light by John Phillip Newell

 

Light

May the angels of light
glisten for us this day.
May the sparks of God’s beauty
dance in the eyes of those we love.
May the universe
be on fire with Presence for us this day.
May the new sun’s rising
grace us with gratitude.
Let earth’s greenness shine
and its waters breathe with Spirit.
Let heaven’s winds stir the soil of our soul
and fresh awakenings rise within us.
May the mighty angels of light
glisten in all things this day.
May they summon us to reverence,
may they call us to life.

(from Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace, 2011)

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Photo by my niece, Chrissy Maio

 

What if you were not there? Day 253

What if you were not there?

Most caregivers offer help and hope, but never consider what would the person helped do if you hadn't volunteered your care. More than happenstance created a moment of need that you only responded to with selflessness, courage and love.

That person might have failed to recuperate or even survive without you! You, the volunteer caregiver, whether in a home setting or a VA hospital, or a hospital or clinic or even along the highway, become a guardian angel to that needy person at that time.

Professional caregivers are also mercy carriers in times of need.

Always be grateful that you used your unique God given gifts--special abilities or personality to make care happen!

Never ever doubt that even small unseen acts of care and loving, bring smiles to God's face and should also give you a gratefulness beyond limit for being one of millions who look outward and step in to help when needed!

~ Terry Chapman

 

 

 

Photo Liz Wessel's grandchildren 2012

 

The Seeds You Plant Days 246-247

 

" Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant." Robert Louis Stevenson

Here are seven good things about work to think about and celebrate over Labor Day weekend:

1. Work is an expression of our giftedness and an investment in the common good of our community.

2. We are wise to establish and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

3. We honor our Creator by doing all our work with excellence and integrity.

4. Throughout the course of our lives, much, if not most, of our work will be teamwork.

5. Great things are accomplished when people commit to a strategic vision and mindset. Effective work requires focus and determination.

6. We usually find our vocation or our calling as we discover and live out our passion. Frederick Buechner contended, “Your vocation in life is where your greatest joy meets the world’s greatest need.”

7. The effectiveness of our work cannot be measured by how quickly we see results. Sometimes we see the fruit of our labor and sometimes we work believing the next generation will be blessed by the fruit of our labor. 

"If you have a place to live, food to eat, someone to love, and good work to do, then you are among the most blessed people in the world. Eric Hoffer deduced, 'The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.' Work can be frustrating at times and rewarding at other times, but it is a privilege never to be taken for granted."

Thank you to all the workers who give so much of themselves for the benefit of others.  May you keep the Sabbath and experience rest and renewal the Labor Day week-end.

Adapted from an essay by  Barry Howard 
Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel

Artist: My friend Diane Barrows

The Superiority of The Feminine Divine - Day 245

   Although raised male in a male-dominant world by a great dad who taught me "how to be a man," I always wondered about the role of women.

   "Always respect them," Dad sternly instructed. But was I really "superior" as society implied? 

   Nope.

  Fortunately, the "male" assertiveness I developed was balanced by my mother and two sisters. But as a boy I wondered why men dominated the world. Even religion. With the exception of the Virgin Mary, where were the women?

   Thank heavens we are in an age where the sexes appear to be entering balance. Indeed, gender identification is in dispute. 

   In 2019, I explored The Feminine Divine in my two-month-long film art show at Vanderbilt Divinity School's Art Gallery. No one objected to the nudes. Only that I was not gender-inclusive enough. 

   In early 20th century England, feminist Francis Swiney advanced the fascinating notion that "all life, spiritual as well as physical, begins as female. [Evolutionarily] the masculine was only a temporary and transitional phase, between the eternal feminine cause and the eternal feminine effect."

   For Swiney there was only one sex, the feminine...Men were simply imperfect women, both physiologically and spiritually," she argued. (emphasis added)

  This is about energy difference not body parts.  Society adapts slowly. How much longer can we tolerate the violence routinely caused by men? We desperately need balance.

    Balance is what happens in the best healthcare settings. Healing occurs only when male assertive-energy (via man or woman) is balanced by feminine nurturing (via woman or man).

   The time for men to recognize the superiority of the feminine divine is not only here, it is long overdue!

-Rev. Erie Chapman 

Poster-art Courtesy, Vanderbilt University Divinity School

Get Out of Your Boat Days 233-234

Each of us is occasionally confronted by a situation of dire need where we have two choices: one is to stay in the comfort of our “boat” and do nothing, or get out of our comfort zone and try to provide help. Strong caregivers regularly get out of their boat—their home, their office chair, their normal routine—and actively offer aid, support or sustenance to anyone who is needy, either in their professional charge, or as a volunteer helper or caregiving family member.  Their help can sometimes mean the difference between life or death or could also help provide a better life to someone, thanks to your unselfish care.

We all have different strengths and weaknesses and not all caregivers have the physical or mental strength to always get out of their boat when a dire need is obvious, but we should then reach out to others for assistance in meeting that need! 

 In a hospital or medical clinic setting, getting necessary help is not difficult but what should you do if not in a setting with any nearby assistance?  You can offer emotional support and stay with the person while trying to get what is needed to solve the problem.  Do you have the emotional strength to do it?

Only you know.  Take stock of your capacities to help and work to further develop your caregiving skills and capacities so that the next time you are confronted with a challenge, you will rise to the occasion and offer all that you can to lessen the problem or hardships. 

Guest Post by Terry Chapman PhD

Photo by unknown photographer
license CCBY

 

Stepping Off The Path - Days 228-232

   A video including my 5 year old grandson defines "stepping off the path." While adults and older sister conversed politely above him, Reed traced a circle 8 racing in and out and around them, laughing, bumping and...being a little boy. 

   Next month he will be six. Every teacher and other adult around him (except me) will work to "get him on the straight path." 

 We have traveled that journey. We must learn the "safe" path, before considering alternatives. 

   Stretching the analogy, what is more interesting, straight line or figure 8? A great artist would not only choose the "8" but create an innovative portrayal.

   It is like New York. It  can be a jungle, or great if you walk the safe streets. Take an alley and you may end up hospitalized or imprisoned.

   Travel your career safely and gold stars for attendance and long service will come your way. We need safe-pathers. They are the majority.

   Fifty years in courtrooms and hospitals trained me to help those whose path led to trouble. Searching for innovative approaches constantly sucked me off the safe path on behalf of clients and, in healthcare, using an unheard-of practice literally called radical. 

   Loving care looks like the safe path. It is not. Look at Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Lincoln, Van Gogh, Dickinson, Nightingale. Even ET?

   Patients need Radical Loving Care^®. Caregivers who live it will break rules: some visitors stay beyond visiting hours, a nurse exits the ER to help a patient, a staffer stands up to leaders who compromise care for money or doctors that engage in patient-harming treatments.

   Radical Loving Care's requirement of exceptional service causes off-path pain: My younger sister's boss's reprimand: "Stop doing so much and making other staff look bad," and board criticism for her older brother for refusing to cut caregivers to save money.

  Renown storyteller Minton Sparks (above) summarized my life long off-path approach in just two bold sentences: "I love your odd take on the world, in Radical Loving Care and the arts. It is incredibly brilliant, incisive, and can be very scary at the same time." 

  Radical Loving Care delivers only one sure reward. It comes from your heart, not your paycheck. 

-Erie Chapman

In Our Dreams Days 228-229

"The day my mother died, I wrote in my journal, "A serious misfortune of my life has arrived." I suffered for more than one year after the passing away of my mother. But one night, in the highlands of Vietnam, I was sleeping in the hut in my hermitage. I dreamed of my mother. I saw myself sitting with her, and we were having a wonderful talk. She looked young and beautiful, her hair flowing down. It was so pleasant to sit there and talk to her as if she had never died.

When I woke up, it was about two in the morning, and I felt very strongly that I had never lost my mother. The impression that my mother was still with me was very clear. I understood then that the idea of having lost my mother was just an idea. It was obvious in that moment that my mother is always alive in me. I opened the door and went outside. The entire hillside was bathed in moonlight. It was a hill covered with tea plants, and my hut was set behind the temple halfway up. Walking slowly in the moonlight through the rows of tea plants, I noticed my mother was still with me. She was the moonlight caressing me as she had done so often, very tender, very sweet... wonderful!

Each time my feet touched the earth I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine but a living continuation of my mother and my father and my grandparents and great-grandparents. Of all my ancestors. Those feet that I saw as "my" feet were actually "our" feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil. From that moment on, the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time."

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

This is such a beautiful reflection by Thich Nat Hahn, one that offers wisdom and comfort. We are more that our physicality, we are spiritual beings. What a blessing of healing and a gift of enduring love to receive this visit from his mom. A turning point in his grief process.

 I have spoken to friends who have experienced very vivid and intensely beautiful dreams of a beloved visiting them in a dream state. I recall my mom sharing how her mom visited her and it was so real she was uncertain if it occurred in her sleep or if she really saw her mom’s apparition in an awake state as she called out to her ever so tenderly, “Oh mama.”

After my brother John had died my cousin Charlie received a visit from him in a dream. In it, Johnny was able to fly and was enthusiastically giving Charlie a tour of the in-patient hospice. The room where he had been cared for and all around the facility. His message was a reassuring one letting Charlie (and indirectly our family) know that he was joyful and in a good place.

I recall listening to a podcast once in which James Finnley shared that after his wife died, he was deeply grieved until one day he realized that their love was still vibrant and alive. He discovered that he could share in conversation with her and in this way their relationship endured beyond the physical realm. What a beautiful thought to contemplate or as Thich Nhat Hanh, expressed, “All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time."

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Artwork by ~liz

Standing Strong Against Wrong - Days - 223-227

    One recent American story is so terrible none of its sordid details will be retold here. The headline is horrible enough: In January, six white Mississippi police officers broke into a home and viciously and repeatedly tortured two innocent black men for hours.

  All six have pled guilty.

  Not one or two but six officers actively planned and carried out this racist and sadistic attack. I wonder if any of them had second thoughts before or mid-crime but could not stand strong against his "buddies."   

  What does this have to do with caregiving and leadership? How often have you seen co-workers, including doctors, leaders, board members, or others engaged in wrongdoing and said nothing? 

  Standing strong against wrong. We are all love that idea. Still, under peer pressure, we routinely "go along to get along" and thus, actively or passively, end up endorsing cruel behavior.

   Yes. We need to know when and where to draw the line. Sometimes (not always) I have openly argued with others when they make racist or sexist comments. Many think I speak up too much. "Just let it go, Erie," I have often been told. "You aren't going to change anything."

   But silence can imply endorsement. 

   How many others in that Mississippi town's subculture of hateful rhetoric stood silent, went along to get along, let it go?

   When you look at the chart, which "zone" is your favorite? We all love comfort. Can we enjoy our comfort if we always just "let it go?" It we entered the Challenge zone more often and stood strong against wrong instead of sitting silently in the Comfort zone, could we save someone from suffering?

-Erie Chapman

Note" Screenshot of Six from CNN

   

Thousands Days 221-222

 

Thousands

Better than a thousand meaningless statements
Is one meaningful word,
Which having been heard
Brings peace.

Better than a thousand meaningless verses
Is one meaningful line of verse
Which having been heard,
Brings peace.

Better than a thousand meaningless verses
Is one meaningful line from the Path of Wisdom
 Which having been heard,
Brings peace.

Greater in competition
Than a person who overcomes
A thousand times a thousand people
Is the person who overcomes self.

Certainly, the better success is in the struggle with the self
Than in a struggle with others.
For someone who is mindfully self-directed
And always lives with relaxed self-control,
Neither heavenly nor hellish spirit,
Nor the powers of force of evil
Could turn such success into defeat.

Adapted from the Dhammapada, Canto 8 (verses 100-103)

 

 Last week when I was searching for some workshop materials that I have not had need of in a long time, I came across this passage from sacred text. I had not seen it in years but discovered it as I was mining through my treasured pages. I placed it in a safe place for easy access for this week’s Journal entry.

As I continued sifting through papers, poems and mandala artwork it was like getting reacquainted with a part of myself that I’ve not spent much time with of late.  As I began typing “Thousands” to share with you I realize that it is just what I needed to read and reflect upon. May it bring you peace.

 “May all sentient beings be well.” “May all sentient beings be happy.” “May all sentient beings be free from suffering.”

May all sentient beings know peace in their heart.

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Mandala Art By Liz

Spotting The Hidden Light in Others - Days 216-220

It is a story reported here before and raised again to highlight a crucial truth: We hide many of our best gifts from ourselves. Jesus, in his universal role as a prophet and leader, advised not to "hide" our light.* When leaders spotlight gifts hidden in others it can sunrise success.

   In the mid-1980s Ohio's largest hospital needed a blue ribbon leadership team. A CEO is like a football coach or orchestra conductor - not just recruiting talent but helping players shine.

  The light coming through that mid'-'80s time-window revealed multiple leaders-in-hiding that would take top spots in American healthcare. "Hiding" here, meant that none of them had top leadership experience in health care. 

   Mark Evans was working for a retail department store chain. Hiring him as Senior Vice President for Human Resources was one of my best decisions. Tracy Wimberly, R.N., was a first line public health nurse in Toledo when I noticed her. She became our Senior Vice President for Patient Care. Jeff Kaplan, who was a top assistant to a university president when I recruited him to help lead Riverside Methodist Hospital. 

  These three had one more thing in common: Profound talent beyond what they recognized in themselves. That had also been true of our Senior V.P. Steve Garlock when I hired him from the Faultless Rubber Division of Abbott Labs. He did not appreciate how good he was until he helped us become so strong that by 1994 Riverside was among America's top ten hospitals and the flagship of the burgeoning U.S. Health system (now OhioHealth.) 

  I get too much credit for Riverside, OhioHealth's and Baptist Hospital's booming successes. Part of what I did was simply recognize that each star could shine more brightly if I could help them trust their talents and practice them. 

   A leader's job is not simply to hire. It is to develop a culture that nurtures the best talents in everyone! We are all stronger than we think we are. But often takes someone else to recognize our hidden gifts. 

   When that happens, Love triumphs. 

-Erie Chapman 

*Neither do men [sic] light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.” (Matthew 5:15)

The Light Within: Days 214-215

 

The longer i live, the more deeply i learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other's light. — Maria Poplova 

 

One discovers the light in darkness, that is what darkness is for; but everything in our lives depends on how we bear the light. It is necessary, while in darkness, to know that there is a light somewhere, to know that in oneself, waiting to be found, there is a light. James Baldwin

 

 

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Photo: My granddaughter and me, 201
 Night Sky by ~liz

Living in the Present Moment Days 207-208

Last week we gathered together to celebrate a dear friend’s 82^nd birthday.  She is afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. Although she did not remember her friends, many who she had worked with, they reminisced with her and shared fond memories of good times. She was delighted to listen to the stories which were emerging from the hazy fog of her current state. Yet, there was much laughter and kind sharing from the heart as well as a little singing.

When she opened her presents, she was surprised to discover her pretty new outfits and we read out loud the endearing sentiments expressed in her cards.  This was followed by birthday cake and a lit candle to make a wish. All was a joyful reunion.

And she won’t remember any of this soon after everyone leaves but that does not diminish the blessings of the occasion. She experienced and embraced every moment with pure enjoyment.

An epiphany arose as I realized that my friend lives in the present moment! She has reached a state that all spiritual teaching point towards but is so difficult to achieve. She no longer holds onto the past and not does worry about the future. She is a t peace and enjoys life each day.

My friend loves to sing. During the day listens to music on the big screen TV in the big family room of the B & C and sings spiritual hymns to her hearts content all throughout the day. She knows all the words to all the songs and she has a nice voice. Whenever I pop in to see her, she is so happy to see me but each time she thinks it has been a long time since I visit even though I visit 2-3xs per week.

Right now, she is in a sweet spot of peace and contentment. However, I know that her disease is progressive and she will continue to decline. I have accompanied my friend throughout her Alzheimer’s journey and there have been some really rough patches. I  worry enough for the both of us. But for now, I am extremely grateful to sing along with her.

~Liz Sorensen Wessel

How "The Pink Panther" Changed YOUR Life - Days 202-206

I. The impact of unexpected careers 

   Over 48 years so many have asked, "How did you go fr0m criminal prosecutor to hospital CEO?" The answer is so absurd many disbelieve it. 

   In 1975, my life was a river flowing predictably. Bruce Trumm (aka "Pink Panther") earthquaked that river diverting it into the lives of thousands I would never have encountered and delivering me to hospitals with river names: Riverside Episcopal* and Riverside Methodist. 

   Bruce touches you who read this. Absent him, there is no Journal and absolutely NO chance I would have run three hospital systems, started giant OhioHealth, launched an international T.V. show seen by millions, put out best-selling books, produced four televised healthcare documentaries...

   No one would know of Radical Loving Care, The Mother Test or this writing. There would be no Riverside-based hospice in Columbus or "Thursday's Baby" in Nashville. Baptist Hospital would likely have gone bankrupt.

   II. "Pink Panther?"

   We expect family to shape us, not casual contacts. I knew Bruce vaguely as a fellow church board member.  The polio that crippled him caused him to shuffle and he would sometimes approach unheard. He loved his nickname: "Pink Panther." He ran the Toledo hospital named Riverside (no connection to Riverside Methodist.) I was a federal crimes prosecutor headed back to private practice.

   It took three tries for Bruce to convince me to accept his outlandish offer to help him run Riverside. I knew nothing about healthcare.  

   "Why me?" I asked Pink Panther. "I have zero training. You have hundreds of other choices."

    "After polio slowed me down, I studied people more carefully," he said. "I watched you in board meetings. You're a leader."

   It was the only reason he ever gave.

   Caregivers and leaders change so many lives. Did someone unexpected change yours?

-Erie Chapman

*Shockingly, Google produced NO pictures of Bruce, who died in 1984. After 119 years the hospital, pictured, closed in 2002 (reopened elsewhere as St. Ann's). The building where we worked was demolished in 2018.  

For the Love of Mother Earth Day 2023-204

Prayer of Blessing

May the love of life
fill our hearts.
May the love of earth
bring joy to heaven.
May the love of self
deepen our souls.
May the love of neighbor
heal our world.
As nations, as peoples, as families this day
may the love of life heal our world.

by John Philip Newell

This Blessing is from "Praying with the Earth" - A Prayerbook for Peace, and it is a lovely little book that I am spending time with in contemplative prayer. Wishing you a peace-filled w/e.

Mandala by ~liz

 

  

Don't Squander Summer! Days 195-201

"Don't Squander Summer!"

The above words come to mind, spoken by a wonderful mentor. Another friend say’s, “this will be my best summer ever!, my best Christmas", etc. as it is how she lives her life. Someone who lives with intentionality to experience every day as a gift. Perhaps, this is can be attributed to having dedicated her life work to hospice care. In caring for people who were dying she learned a great deal about living from them.

Life is a both/and as Richard Rohr offers “everything belongs.” The bright summer days and the cold winter nights. We look outside ourselves for acceptance, belonging, love, forgiveness and yet all spiritual paths point to the inward journey.

Ah, but summer beckons to us into this season of blossoming, gentle breezes, and a return to the carefree days of our youth. What stirs within you? Hopefully some fond memories but regardless we have opportunities to create anew.

As Richard reminds us, everything belongs, the pain of loss and the blessings of new life. Whatever comes, rather than resist, avoid, or fight it we can choose another way.  Tara Brach offers this simple but helpful practice of RAIN. When a distressing situation arises,  Recognize the uncomfortable feeling, Allow it to be present, then be curious and Investigate a bit more about what you are feeling, to offer kindness, compassion and Nurturance to what is in need of care and attention, rather than self judgement. In this way we can allow the cloud to pass on through us instead of getting stuck inside, we let it go.

This is one way we can tend our inner garden for our well-being so that we can experience little moments of peace and as little frustrations arise bless rather than curse them. Accept that this too belongs and we can learn from whatever comes our way.

May you experience simple moments to delight your spirit and the gifts to be found in the unexpected challenges that undoubtedly will arise.

Prayer of Awareness

Light
golden light
fresh from the source.

Colours
creation’s colours
calling our senses.

Life in its oneness
 life in all its manifold oneness
 all from You.

 You are the Sun
from whom the morning shines
You are the River in whom each life-form flows
each face
each race
each cell within our ever-living soul.

This new day we greet You.

by John Philip Newell

I hope you enjoy the gifts to be discovered in summer!

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Artwork by ~liz

 

When Motive Matters Most - Days 190-194

   Sure. Motive matters in criminal cases. But, "motive" has a different relevance here.

   A recent pitched battle in Nashville erupted when Alive Hospice explored selling the beloved, 48-year-old organization to a for-profit company. A huge segment of the community was horrified, launched a campaign ("Keep Alive alive") and a petition that drew 6000 signatures. The board backed away, fired the CEO and retained their non-profit status.

   Why does this matter?   

   Healthcare must focus first on best care, not highest profit. That does not mean for-profits automatically give bad care. Sometimes for-profits outperform non-profits and too many non-profit hospitals are over-focused on money.

   But hospice seems different. Data from a large Rand Corporation study proved that non-profit hospice care is better. Is that because non-profit hospices have kept their motives closer to mission? 

   Yes. The larger issue is motive. Organizations with cultures of loving care attract the best caregivers and give the best care. 

   The board of "Alive" faces a big challenge: To pick a new CEO whose motives align with mission first, not money. To succeed, they must first model their own mission. 

-Erie Chapman