Radical Loving Care: Journal of Sacred Work

Our Better Angels

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies...The mystic chords of memory…will yet swell the chorus… when again touched… by the better angels of our nature.

Abraham Lincoln – First Inaugural Address – March 4, 1861

Dr. Don Berwick's Gift to You

The news announces that 122,300 lives have been saved in the past eighteen months. Was some great new vaccine discovered? Is there a cure for cancer? Has a great war come to a halt? The answer may well save your life or the life of someone you love. It's an answer that came from a doctor who acted from love, not fear...

Tomb of the Unknown Caregiver

   We know them. Yet they are not seen or remembered by name. They are the legions of loving caregivers who tended our ancestors, gave their compassion & their skill to strangers, lived with the golden thread of healing in their hands...

Parrish Embraces Loving Care Movement

Parrish Medical Center, a premier Healing Hospital(TM), has been recognized for its work in The Brevard Business Journal. The article helps reflect not only Parrish's outstanding progress, but signals the degree to which the media has begun to recognize Radical Loving Care as a movement.

The Well of Memory

Within us flows an artesian well of memories. Where attention goes, energy flows. The mind can dip into the well of memory allowing us to drink from the past - the bitter and the sweet.
This well holds so much of our life. Drink from it today.

Coming to Rest

The earth has disappeared beneath my feet,
   It fled from all my ecstasy
Hafiz (1320-1389)

       In meditation, some contemplate an image. Others seek to become that image for awhile.   Meditation, of course, is not about trying. Yet the introduction of particular images, in this case images of things coming to rest: a parachute; a child beneath sheets that become descending clouds; are offered to help caregivers down the path to their own moments of rest and healing.
      

Listening

No Words

.

What if I asked you to listen to your soul?

Could you hear her?

       Would her whisper warm a pathway to your

                                heart?

    

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Finding Silence Within

(Note: to comment on this meditation, click "Comments" button below)

            Quiet without is helpful in finding silence within. However, external silence is not required for meditation. Some can meditate in the midst of noise – on planes, subways, even in the midst of football stadiums filled with screaming fans. 

In my meditations, I sometimes imagine myself falling into silence, sinking down, letting go of the energy that glued me to noise. Use these words if they help you find your place of peace.

Alive Hospice

In its continuing effort to honor outstanding charities, the Baptist Healing Trust wishes to recognize Alive Hospice (Nashville) for its ongoing excellence in establishing cultures of loving care.

A Mountain Lake Experience

Consider the difficulty of looking at a painting like Turner's Lake of Zug (viewable by entering in Google the phrase: "William Turner, Lake of Zug.") The first question in the mind of the average westerner is: What is it? The obvious answer comes – mountains, a lake, people. Now the heartbreaking part: Art museum studies show that the average viewer spends about seven seconds in front of a great art work. How hard it is to appreciate the gift of beauty in seven seconds.

What kinds of noise circle about you now? How is your attention, your presence to the deepest needs of others, your ability to hear the music of your own soul?

Journal of Sacred Work

Introductory Note from Erie Chapman, President & CEO 

  The Baptist Healing Trust welcomes you to the Journal of Sacred Work. The purpose of this journal is to support the advancement of loving care in America's hospitals and charities.