Journal of Sacred Work

What Sparked Joy Today?

“Many of us have made our world so familiar that we do not see it anymore," the great John O'Donohue writes.

He adds a delightful challenge: "An interesting question to ask yourself at night is, What did I really see this day?”

Ever since, the energy in my always searching eyes has been even more alert to sudden moments that spark joy.

One struck today. A new friend fell from the sky into my eyes. He appeared first as a flame, acrobating the air as a tip of lightning. Then a flying leaf. Finally, a brilliant, solid yellow butterfly.

Botanists call them "yellow sulfur" butterflies. I call them sparks of joy.

Odd as it sounds coming from a tough, 80-year old former trial lawyer and hospital CEO who spent his career in florescent-lit battlefields, this little fellow with the always sun-drenched wings, who flitted by and vanished in a second, did something for me. He sparked joy.

When I slip into bed tonight and ask myself "What did I really see this day?" my dashing flash of a yellow friend will again ignite light in my heart.

Click here to see a 30 second video I made for you from online clips. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=926j-8DbyyM

What sparked joy for you today?  

-Erie Chapman

The blurry pictures and video YouTube prove that these beings are, well, sparks. 

Does Blame Block Forgiveness?

Every caregiver encounters them. "Bedpan throwers," are a great test to professionalism.

Is it similar for parents with an "unruly" child? Problem children suck an enormous amount of family energy. The following sounds common but is unusually dramatic. 

Nearly six decades ago, two of our oldest friends introduced us to their beautiful children, "James" and "Johnny." James grew up well-behaved and successful. Johnny? A nightmare. 

Johnny became a drug addict. Horrified, his parents poured enormous resources into interventions and professional help.

They continued to flood both sons with love. Especially Johnny because, as his mom said, "He seemed to need so much more love while James was fine."

Across decades, Johnny whiplashed in and out of rehab and jail. Like the father in "The Prodigal Son," they forgave but tried to be firm. 

Al-Anon advised, "Keep your prodigal son at a loving distance." But, Johnny had a fatal gift: huge charm.

One Christmas Eve, he showed up unexpectedly. "I'm so sorry, mom and dad. May I join you?"

Swallowing hard, both parents said, "No." Yet, Johnny's charm prevailed. They had a happy evening.

Christmas' dawn delivered a shock. Johnny had stolen one of their cars and all their credit cards. 

One afternoon, the nightmare reached a conclusion. When Johnny's mom drove to check on him he was dead of a drug overdose.

Long before, Johnny's mother had found peace through a crucial understanding. "I forgave Johnny repeatedly. But, I could not forgive myself," she says, "until one day I realized: "Blame blocks forgiveness for me as well as him."

When a caregiver stops blaming a patient, a co-worker or anyone else, relief flows both way.  

-Erie Chapman

Painting: "The Prodigal Son," Pompeo Batoni, 1773

Music to Soothe the Soul

Music has an extraordinary power to create magical experiences that can make our spirits soar. l had one such experience years ago when I was working as a home health nurse. It was raining heavily and I was driving to see a patient and I was running a little late. As I pulled up to her location the rain was suddenly torrential. I was sitting in my car and this most beautiful classical music began playing. I was completely absorbed in listening and overwhelmed by the enchantment of the moment. Suddenly I was lifted from this drab grey day to a delightful moment of awe. I lingered for a few minutes and then reluctantly pulled myself back to the need to exit my car and get to my patient visit. That memory still lingers to this day as a fleeting but unforgettable moment in time.

What I love is how music can stir our emotions and bring up memories. When I listen to music from other cultures, I may not understand the words butit  still resonate with me at a heart and soul level.

Cellist/composer Joshua Roman shared some of his experiences of creating music in his documentary called "Drive." He offered this insight, “without telling the story of words, people can have similar experiences hearing a melody, and it doesn't depend on where you're from or what your background is, we have this unifying spirit inside of us. I'm not even sure you need ears to feel those things about music. There's just so much room and so much depth in the nuance of how we're affected by sound, there's no words, there's no colors, there's no picture, but there's melody and that makes us all feel a similar way.”

There are so many healing aspects of music that can be applied in healthcare. I know of caregivers who will bring their guitar into a patient’s home to play and sing for and/with them. These experiences create human connection in a beautiful and meaningful way.

My friend who has Alzheimer's has lost so much of her memory. Yet, she loves music and when hymns are played she happily sings along and knows all the words. Researchers are increasingly making discoveries on the healing power of music in relation to body, mind and spirit.  

At work you may wish to offer music at the onset of a meeting to allow those present to transition from the busyness of their day to pause and catch their breath while letting their souls catch up with them.

The following song is by Kris Farquhar, who created this music in honor of her father’s ancestral homeland, and she describes it as “a sound wave” back in time. So, let’s settle in to a comfortable position, taking a few deep breaths and may you be open to receiving this Gaelic blessing.

 

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel

What's in the Frame?

One of Nashville's most delightful locations is unconnected to country music. Cheekwood Gardens' 55 acres are flooded with an astonishing array of every kind of flower, plant and tree. Walk the forest behind its 30,000 square foot mansion and you will be greeted every so often by a world class sculpture.

The thing that fascinates me most, though, is not the framed paintings inside the mansion or the gardens without. It is a single empty gold frame. 

What is in the frame? Nothing...or everything. The blank space symbolizes what we cherish, Possibility, and thrills her companion, Imagination. 

Frames fascinate. They focus our attention and lend instant importance to their contents. Empty frames long for fulfillment. 

Artists see possibilities others miss. Among zillions of canvases and wood panels I sometimes wonder about one. It is 21" x 30" and once laid on a table in a 16th century Florence studio.

Blank it was worth a few cents. One day it was struck by lightning. A genius touched it. Today the DaVinci's "Mona Lisa" is visited by millions and is worth billions.

The years we have lived are already painted and framed. The years ahead? A blank canvas.

Paint them with love everyday and you will fashion masterpieces worth far more than that mysterious face framed at the Louvre. That is what caregivers do.  

That is what you can still do!

-Erie Chapman

*Many years ago, I saw the Mona Lisa in person along with hundreds of others and noticed something strange. There were a couple dozen other masterpieces hanging on adjoining walls: All beautiful. Each ignored. 

**And Leonardo's masterpiece was painted on a white poplar wood panel.  

For Love of the World

In a recent post by Erie, he shared  nurse Kathleen Grannan's inspiring call to "share a moment of really listening, really reaching across the divide, please do so...We owe it to our country to try."  In this spirit and in this season of celebrating and reverencing all of creation I offer this prayer. 

 God of all blessings, source of all life, giver of all grace:
We thank you for the gift of life:
for the breath that sustains life,
for the food of this earth that nurtures life,
for the love of family and friends without which there would be no life.

 We thank you for the mystery of creation:
for the beauty that the eye can see,
for the joy that the ear may hear,
for the unknown that we cannot behold filling the universe with wonder,
for the expanse of space that draws us beyond the definitions of our selves.

 We thank you for setting us in communities:
for families who nurture our becoming,
for friends who love us by choice,
for companions at work, who share our burdens and daily tasks,
for strangers who welcome us into their midst,
for people from other lands who call us to grow in understanding,
for children who lighten our moments with delight,
and who offer us hope for the future.

 We thank you for this day:
for life and one more day to love,
for opportunity and one more day to work for justice and peace,
for neighbors and one more person to love and by whom be loved,
for your grace and one more experience of your presence
for your promise: to be with us,
in every circumstance.

For these, and all blessings
In all that is holy and good. 

We say,
Amen.

- By Vienna Cobb Anderson (adapted)

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel

Mandala by ~liz

A Special Presentation for Caregivers

   How do we find rest? I created this special short film for your rest and refreshment...by taking you on a visit to water - especially the kind that cascades over cliffs.

Waterfalls do no laboring, have no bills, no worries or troubles. They do not even know their names. They just are. 

I stood so close to the falls to make some of these pictures that I could literally feel the electricity and power of the water as it crashed down. Thrilling.  

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINK (BELOW) so we know whether we are reaching you!

Happy Labor Day! :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NRSYyoxFYs

Thank you, 

Erie

Doing Small Things Beautifully

The following reflection is a letter that my good friend Nathanial Vose M.Div, BCC, SEP shared with colleagues as he reflects upon his healthcare journey and beauty of working hospice care. 

For the past nine years, I've been blessed to work with the most amazing, compassionate, and skillful colleagues.  Mother Theresa is quoted to have once said, 'You can't do great things, you can only do small things with great love.'  Through experience, I might paraphrase this slightly and say-- 'You CAN do great things, only by doing small things with great love.'   In my past nine years here, I truly feel that we have done great things together by doing small things beautifully, compassionately, and lovingly over and over and over again.  Every day, I witness, hear about, and am inspired by the sacred encounters that each of you engage in, the way that you bring your values to life and make them real.  Personally, I've always practiced approaching this work we do not simply as a job, but as a spiritual path-- one in which my purpose is to cultivate the seeds of compassion, love, and understanding in myself and in the world around me.  I've had my share of struggles and successes on the path, but I have always been buoyed by the inspiration and caring of those around me and the knowing that I was never walking it alone.  

Hospice work is sacred work, and we are blessed by the opportunity it provides to open our hears, discover our unique and interwoven humanity, and deepen our understanding of the nature of reality.  The thread of intention and love that called me into hospice work as a volunteer at the age of 18 is perhaps a similar thread to one that others of you may carry.  It is a thread much bigger than me, bigger than an organization, bigger than a movement, bigger than a life.  While we may need to let things go on our path, we continue hold onto the thread of our intention and calling and it carries us on a deeply meaningful journey.

May you always be strengthened by the thread of your deepest intention and aspirations.  

May you continue to do small things with great love and, in doing so, continue to build something GREAT together.

Thank you, beyond words, for the gifts, teachings, care, and love you have offered me.  I am so deeply grateful to you all! 

With Great Love,
Nathaniel

Nathaniel's approach to living his calling is an inspiring illustration of sacred work and Radical Loving Care.

Shared by Liz Wessel with permission from the author.  May all the blessings Nathaniel has bestowed on others return to him tenfold as he begins a new carrer opportunity!

Is Peace Red, Blue or White? Ask Kathleen - August 26-30

  My friend, nurse Kathleen Grannan (left), wrote in a beautiful Facebook post. "We can do better than just hate and anger. It’s on us to breech the divide."

   Her truth is as wise and as hard as Radical Loving Care. Everyone loves white clouds puffing up a blue sky. Storm clouds demand attention.   

   We all love peace. Some paint it red. Some blue. White absorbs all colors. 

   The red/blue divide is exactly that: a divide. A tragic one that only "white" can absorb.

   My trial lawyer training demanded "fighting" injustice's, storms. Three years in law school, seven as a trial lawyer, and eight as an acting judge, taught how to "win" arguments. 

   Outside court, I noticed that victory using lawyer's arguments generated resentment. Divinity school training years later taught me pathways to peace. My years of ministry in hospitals and to Death Row affirmed patients and prisoners as people, not numbers.

   What about Aesop's 3000-year-old fable of how the sun bested the North wind? And the message 500 years later to "love our enemies"? 

   "Please, red and blue," Kathleen pleads, "if you can share a moment of really listening, really reaching across the divide, please do so...We owe it to our country to try."

   Peace asks more than silence. It seeks Reverend King's balance of "tough-minded/tender-hearted." Unity marries listening presence with respectful response.

   My peaceful-politics failures have severed some friendships. Thank you, Aesop and Kathleen...I am trying. 

- Rev. Erie Chapman

   *Want to support the mission of Radical Loving Care^®? Donate-a-dollar - www.eriechapmanfoundation.net. (You can use the Donate button but we cannot acknowledge your name unless you donate by check to Non-profit Erie Chapman Foundation, 112 Dunham Springs Lane, Nashville, 37205. THANK YOU! 

Be Still And Know...

As people raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition know, the full phrase is "Be still and know that I am God" from Psalm 46. I truncated the sentence to make it universal regardless of faith.

My experience teaches that stillness expands "knowing." The gift of the God of my understanding arrives when I surrender to God's centering energy.

Yes. There's all that noise out there. No, we do not have to compulsively add to it.

Yes. Music can be calming. No, we don't need to play sound 24/7.

Yes. I have learned that when I ask any audience to close their eyes for three minutes some cannot do it. "Too scary," some say. "To many thoughts," ("monkey mind") others report. 

Silence itself becomes noisy. Tasks, fears, compulsions to "do" not "be" defeat Silence.

Can the God of our understanding squeeze through the noise to heal us? Must the radio always play while driving? Can we sit, eyes closed, for five minutes every day? When did you do that last?

Here's a proven way to quiet the monkey mind: Hire security guards called Repetitive Prayers or Mantras. Let them clear your path to rest. 

No one needs to be reminded to breathe. We all need to be reminded to notice our breathing. One way I "catch my breath" is to observe my breathing. To practice exhaling noise and breathing in peace. 

To be still and know. 

-Erie Chapman 

Photo by Erie

 

 

Honoring A life Well Lived

 

Recently, I shared a little about my journey drawing mandalas as a spiritual art form. One of the ways it has helped me is in times of grief. I discovered drwaing as a medium  to process my grief as well as an expression of love for the person. This  mandala was drawn to honor the life of my Mother in-law, Helen Wessel.

Helen was a devout Catholic and I feel blessed for the years she was in my life. I observed her to be a person who had no concern for material possessions and someone who lived her life in the service of others. Although she was riddled with painful arthritis and required a walker to ambulate, she would bring communion every Sunday to her good friend Renee. Honestly, I think Helen was more disabled than her friend but that did not stop her from doing good for the benefit of others.

Helen had a huge backyard with fruit trees, vegetables, berries and blooming flowers. On w/e’s she and my Father-in-law Wes would be out in the yard tending the garden. My young boys would go over on Sundays to visit, and enjoyed their time in the yard, playing in the dirt and helping plant and harvest. On most Sunday evenings, the family all gathered at the table for a  dinner. These times are some of my favorite memories. Even the horseradish grinds to make a supply of horseradish to last the season.

Helen was a huge help to us as she came over after school to watch the kids as I worked full time and my husband was busy with his small dental lab. The kids truly enjoyed being lavished with the attention they received and she would help them with their homework.

It wasn’t until after Helen passed that I truly realized who she was in my life. She was the embodiment of Christ in my life.  She did not live for herself but for others. The mandala I drew represennt the trinityand has the rosary in it as Helen liked to pray.  I too have found the rosary a comfort and a meditative process that I return to from time to time.

 And this practice weaves and connects me to the other very special Mother’s in my life. My grandmother Kate Carter from County Kilkenny Ireland and she came by herself to New York at age 17. What an adventurous soul and a beautiful person. I have fond remembrances of visiting her on Sundays after church and was only greeted with love and kindness. She died when I was 13 and I treasure her memory now more that ever and especially since visiting her homestead and meeting all my relatives in 2011. The land of 10,000 welcomes!

My mom was the best and she influenced my life in countless ways through her kind and gentle ways, strength and perseverance and her hard working life raising a family of six and her enjoyment of life and valuing of friendships.  Hers was the art of letter writing which she continued well into her 90's.  When I was 10, I was hospitalized with meningitis and my mom was by my side day and night. I was critically ill and it was uncertain if I would make it. I remember her saying to me, “I wish I could change places with you” and how she was there for me offering comfort in such a scary and painful time. Not realizing it until years later, she inspired my calling to work with people with serious illness and at end of life. She taught me the unspoken covenant that is forged between caregivers and people at end of life, with patients, loved ones, friends and family, that communicates beyond words, “I will not abandon you.”

The last person who was as a mother to me is my best friend’s mom, Candi Maio. Growing up she was such an affirming person in my life always seeing the good in me and calling it out. She would light up a room with her presence and this lovely gift of an exhuberance for life is carried on through her daughter Susan.

What all of these women had in common was their warm hospitality, love of people, of life and a faith in God and in the goodness of people.

Liz Sorensen Wessel

Finding Hope

 

When the world feels hopeless and heartless,

take a moment to look around.

There are beautiful humans everywhere,

often hiding in plain sight in cabs,

on buses, in cafes, on trains, in libraries,

on park benches, in laundromats, on subways.

They may not be rich or well-educated.

They may be broken and hurting themselves.

They may not have much to offer

in terms of worldly goods.

But they are the comforters, encouragers, sharers,

teachers, servers, healers, mentors, connecters,

helpers, and counselors who keep

the random hurting humans,

the weary and the lost,

the invisible sufferers who walk among us every day,

going just long enough

to find their hope and strength again.

It doesn't take a degree or wealth

or a grand gesture to make a

difference in this world.

It just takes a human who cares.

L.R. Knost

 

Thank you for the many unique and extrordinary ways that you care!

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Mandala by ~liz

Courage? August 5-9

There are so many kinds of "courage" that a question mark accompanies the word.

The oddness of being recruited from courtrooms to hospitals in 1975 thrust me face to face with bravery beyond anything I had seen. Caregivers calmly facing bloodied accident victims, screaming drug addicts, patients throwing bedpans... It takes courage for hospital or hospice workers just to show up. 

We are born with survival fears. Courage must be learned. It took me into adulthood to begin honing a calm that leaders (and trial lawyers) must show under fire.

Bravery's most infamous showcase? War. In the life-changing World War II film series "Band of Brothers" one soldier tells another, "The only way to survive is to understand that you're already dead. That's the way it is in war."

That is one path to courage. Soldiers are routinely spotlighted. Courageous caregivers never secure either the credit or the empathy they deserve. 

The stereotype: Males start wars. Females heal. 

Want to see five shades of courage? Study the eyes of America's first black female nurse. Civil War caregiver Susie King Taylor (1848-1912) : 1) chose caregiving, 2) in wartime, 3) as a black person 4) a woman, 5) was a teenager. For all that, she was attacked.

"There are many people who do not know what some of the colored women did during the war," she wrote. "There were hundreds of them who assisted the Union soldiers by hiding them and helping them to escape. Many were punished for taking food to the prison stockades for the prisoners."

This week, on August 6, pioneering battlefield nurse Susie King Taylor would have turned 126. Take a moment to honor her Radical Loving Care™.

-Erie Chapman

Please also take a moment to support our mission. Donate-a-dollar via the "button" at: www.eriechapmanfoundation.net

Photo: Wikipedia

The Center of the Universe

For those who keep company with us through this Journal, we thank you! Through the years, I have discovered expression of my spirituality through drawing Mandalas which offers endless possibilities. If you are curious about the name mandala, it is an ancient Sanskrit word than means sacred circle and it is steeped in imagery. For me the circle is symbolizes God, there is no beginning and there is no end, of spirit eternal and Love unending. The center radiates pure spiritual light and union. It is here that we are born and set out on our Journey in life, each following our own unique path and at journey's end return in union with our creator.

This beautiful quote from the book “Black Elk speaks describes the circle well.

“Everything the Power of the World does s done in a circle. The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars.
The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again. In a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where The Power moves.”
 — Black Elk, Medicine Man of the Oglala Sioux Nation.

Mandalas often have cardinal points which represents the polarities that exist in nature. For example, North/ South, night/day, winter/summer, chaos/order, or fire/water.  Everything engages in a movement forward and a movement away in the cosmic dance of life. Although each element has an opposite, there is no ultimate separation as all is interdependent and co-exists to create the fullness of life. In this way, mandalas offer a process of integration and harmony as one begins to live in awareness of how our differing parts are necessary in creating our wholeness. We begin to see that the shadowy more fragile parts of ourselves are to be approached tenderly and with loving kindness and acceptance .

Pema Chödrön offers this perspective, “Each person's life is like a mandala- a vast, limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle, and everything we see, hear and think forms the mandala of our life. We enter a room, and the room is our mandala. We get on the subway, and the subway car is our mandala, down to the teenager checking messages on her iPhone and the homeless man slumped in the corner. We're lying in a hospital bed, and the hospital is our mandala. We don't set it up; we don't get to choose what or who shows up in it. It is, As Chögyam Trungpa said, "the mandala that is never arranged but is always complete." And we embrace it just as it is. Everything that shows up in your mandala is a vehicle for your awakening. From this point of view, awakening is right at your fingertips continually. There is not a drop of rain that appears in your life that isn't the manifestation of enlightened energy, that isn't a doorway to a sacred world.”  

As a spiritual art form, mandalas allow for meaningful expression that can be shared with caregivers. Contained within a mandala is the macrocosm of our vast universe and the microcosm of a human life as an interweaving our connectedness to each other and of something  greater than ourselves.

I leave you with this inspired vision. "There I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy. But anywhere is the center of the world."~Black Elk

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Mandala by ~liz

Does Life Guarantee Joy?

   It occurred to me today for the first time. Life guarantees suffering, but not joy.

   Instead, from the moment of birth, pain is assured. Why is a baby's first breath often used to cry? Do they know this already?

   Empathy helps healing. Judy Herendeen (pictured) is one of the most empathetic people I know. A former Riverside psychiatric caregiver she describes, with stunning eloquence, her childhood exposure to Appalachian poverty during her early Children's Services work and through her Doctor-dad:  

   "I couldn’t believe people lived in such poverty. I would go on house calls with my Dad. He’d pull in a driveway to a wooden shack. Does someone really live here? Men with long beards and shot guns were sitting on the porch. I stayed in the car. I heard them greet Dad. “Hi Doc, the boy is in here”. Dad would go into the house followed by the men. When he came out, the men who looked scary to me now were smiling. Dad would be carrying a bottle of dandelion wine and a homemade pie... I saw people who wouldn’t let my Dad leave without being paid...Generational poverty and its cycle of destruction of the human soul is something you understand when you care enough to see it for what it is. Really see it."

   The legendary poet, Walt Whitman saw it while caring for Civil War soldiers: "...Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals,/ The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,/ I sit by the restless all the dark night, some are so young/ Some suffer so much..."

   Suffering is guaranteed. Joy is elusive. 

   How well do non-caregivers understand other's suffering? A grieving expert teaches, "The worst thing to say to sufferers is, 'I know exactly how you feel."

   Regardless of our agonies, other's pain is profoundly personal. Yet, we can, like Judy, learn to empathize and thus offer sufferers a caregiver's gift: Joy. 

-Erie Chapman

Photo: Judy Herendeen, by Molly Muth

 

What Dreams Are Made Of

Last night, while dreaming I wrote my Journal entry for this week but when I awoke, I discovered a blank page and my recollections faded from the page like invisible ink…

As I began my days routine, I was standing at the counter cutting some fresh strawberries I felt a real sense of gratitude bubble up from within. I thought “everything is a blessing,” and I was thankful for the strawberries in summer.   Even the hard things in life, as there is always something unexpected as blessing that comes from our experiences. I am reminded that even in the darkness the Light finds a way in.

Perhaps, this gratitude stirred from watching a sweet movie last night called “Hugo.” Have you seen it?  I came out back in 2011. The cinematography is gorgeous and the story telling in this fantasy tale captures the imagination and one’s heart.  

A story that sends a young boy and his new found friend on a mysterious quest of unexpected discovery, one that is not without its perils, hardship and heartache. One of the characters, who is a film-maker tells a young boy, “Films are what our dreams are made of. Hugo has some very vivid dreams, one that holds a premonition of a future event, as cautionary protection.

I am someone who prefers not to know what a film is all about. The less I know, the better as I like to go in with an open mind and no preconceived notions or expectations. Therefore, I am not sharing much other than to say, I truly enjoyed it.

I hope you are having an enjoyable week-end filled with a few of your favorite things to do, or to be with your favorite friends and/or family.  
Liz Sorensen Wessel

Why Abandon "the Box?" Einstein's Most Useful Advice

 "Out of the box" thinking makes most anxious. "Why leave the box?" they wonder. "It's safe."

   True, unless the answer is not in the box. 

   Einstein warned us that insanity is "trying the same solution repeatedly even though it is not working." Innovation, by definition, is crucial to excellence. The old 9-dot puzzle (below) is a delightful way to train such thinking.

    It's an ordinary square with three dots on each side and one in the center. The challenge? Connect all dots with 4 straight lines.*

    Kids under 6 solve this fast because they are not yet imprisoned by conventional thinking. Most adults are so stuck in routinized rules they quickly get stuck in repeating the same approach even though it will not and cannot work.   

   Are they like healthcare leaders whose leadership philosophy is strings of threats?

   Hospitals are thrive on routines. During my decades of working with first line caregivers, I developed enormous respect for those who cleaned the same floors, laundered patient sheets, did the same surgery procedures, counted out pills, or typed doctor's notes. Breakthroughs often call for breaking "the rules." 

   You can solve the 9 dot puzzle in under 9 seconds if you through away one key assumption. Ask any 6 year old. If you apply your learning to any problems you've repeatedly been unable to solve how would your life change? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYGQ04wyshw

-Erie Chapman

*Note: the puzzle can even be solved with only three straight lines!

The Seemingly Impossible

I would like to share this inspiring true story with you. Mary is a dedicated social worker who lives love. She brings families and community support together to make the seemingly impossible, possible.

For example, she worked with a hospital team, the patient, his son, APS, and the VA to help a Vietnam Veteran, who had been living without power or water for nearly 20 years, to obtain a safe place to live. She coordinated efforts to have his home cleaned and provided with power, arranged for home health support and the VA to connect him with additional services.

This patient had been denied dignity for most of his life, beginning with living in foster care, being subjected to great trauma in Vietnam, and then being a single father to his children.  He was left without options in so many parts of his life but is now on a road toward better quality of life with dignity.

In essence, due to Mary’s efforts a miracle unfolded through the healing power of love. She could have easy “just done her job.”  Yet, she was moved with compassion for this man, she must have thought what else can we do for this man? She decided to reach out to community partners perhaps asking others that question… What more can we do? In taking it a step further she continued to ask and to engage others in finding a way to help this man. It is clear that Mary sees her work as a calling and not just a job.

We truly are blessed to be the hands and feet of a loving Creator, for through love nothing is impossible…

Comments welcome, it is your support that keeps this Journal going...thank you!

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Mandala art by~liz

The Light Within Us

"Reverend Otis Moss (senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago) tells a story about a time when he and his church were under attack, some years ago. They were receiving dozens of death threats every week, “We’re going to kill you.” “We’re going to bomb your church.” At the time, he was a new preacher and a young father. The situation was dire.

One night he was awakened by a noise in his house and he trepidatiously got up to see what was going on. He peeked into his daughter’s room, and he describes: “There was my daughter Makayla dancing in the darkness—just spinning around, saying, ‘Look at me, Daddy.’ I said, ‘Makayla, you need to go to bed. It is 3 am. You need to go to bed.’ But she said, ‘No, look at me, Daddy. Look at me.’And she was spinning, barrettes going back and forth, pigtails going back and forth.

I was getting huffy and puffy wanting her to go to bed, but then God spoke to me. ‘Look at your daughter! She’s dancing in the dark. The darkness is all around her but it is not in her!’

Makayla reminded me that weeping may endure for a night, but if you dance long enough joy will come in the morning. It is the job of preachers, to send this word to us in the hardest of times: do not let the darkness find its way to you.”

~Rabbi Sharon Brous

 

All people have been created in the image of God. – Genesis 1:27

We each carry within us a unique spark of the Divine. I ofen feel that God's speaks to me through the voice of others. In this case a beautiful young girl,  awakened her father to the presence of Light, of Hope and Love within her, within all of us.

A Lamp for the Way

The gift of our life expereinces 
reflected upon...

prayed into our flesh and being
becomes our lamp for the way.
-From "A Time To Listen" Author Unknown

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Manala by ~liz

"Goodbye, you who are always leaving me..."

   The title launched a poem my wife wrote to our college-bound son long ago. The words ring louder today amid rising refrains of goodbyes to family and friends as well as to jobs and to former homes. 

   Hospice caregivers are constantly saying goodbye. They teach us that passings need not be melancholic, especially as the "bitter" in "bittersweet" yields to "sweet."

   Departed jobs and long ago companions are ships lighting the way to islands of memories. 

   Former American Poet Laureate Billy Collins (left) is among the most delightful writers of our generation (I rarely use poet's line breaks because they scare away readers.) 

   Note Collin's whimsy about the dead in his poem of the same name. "The dead are always looking down on us, they say,/ while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,, they are looking down through the glass-bottom boats of heaven/ as they row themselves slowly through eternity.../"

   Does this change your feelings of  the death to which we are all headed? He continues, "...They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,/ and when we lie down in a field or on a couch,/ drugged perhaps by the hum of a warm afternoon,/ they think we are looking back at them,..."/

   "....which makes them lift their oars and fall silent/ and wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes."

  What a soft coda.

   Aging floods us with goodbyes. How much could Collins' poetry enrich your days?

-Erie Chapman

To support this journal go to: https://www.eriechapmanfoundation.net

 

At the Heart of Every Story

The Story Teller

At the heart of every story
there lives a story teller
Listen to your heart
as a child listens to her favorite story-
anticipating every word

Carried by every emotion
wide open to surprise
and you will hear the Story Teller
telling your story

“Once Upon a time”
begins a timeless story
in the heartland of our lives
where there is room for all of us
to nestle into our Creator God
who loves stories.

From “A Time To Listen” Unknown Author

The following would not be known except for a co-worker who took time to write about a social worker who lives love…

As a social worker she strives to make connections with the patients she serves and will think outside of the box to make that happen. I have seen her deliver In and Out Burger to a family who lived far out in the country and was resistant to visits from anyone except the nurse and hospice aide.  This gesture provided her with a reason to visit, where she was able to establish rapport and thus provide the emotional support the family and caregiver really needed. With this connection established she not only was supporting the family and caregiver but the whole team working with this group as well.  

She also understands how to walk that line of boundaries. She is a role model and a sounding board with her co-workers and peers. She provides insights into not only managing the needs of our patients but also how to take care of ourselves.

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Mandala by ~liz