Journal of Sacred Work

Days 332-334 - Thanksgiving & Open Forum

[This meditation is an expression of thanksgiving begun by Cathy Self, Senior Vice President for the Baptist Healing Trust.]

Norman Rockwell gave voice to four freedoms through his painting. One (see below) is titled "Freedom from Fear"and seems an appropriate beginning to a remembering of that for which we may feel thankful. All who visit these pages are invited to continue with your own expressions of thanksgiving.

For freedom from fear,

The wind’s gentle embrace,

Rough edges of a broken shell;

The love-light in my grandson’s eyes, and

the dimple that signals outright joy in my granddaughter’s face,

A warm and welcoming home,

Sky-filled hues of scarlet, crimson, amethyst, and deepest blue,

Refuge and safety in my husband’s arms;

Heartbeat of the sea as it breaks on shore,

Hearing God walk near in the rustling grass,

Knowing with certainty the sweet aroma of mercy, grace, and Love;

Tired feet,

Busy calendars,

Cookie crumbs on my kitchen floor,

Refrains of “Amazing Grace” sung with aging voice,

Laughter carried in the air,

A fire in the fireplace and a worn, cozy comforter;

Sacred ground found in all places,

Cacophony of rain drops on my roof,

Crunchy leaves on the ground,

Snow white blossoms on a fence row,

Friendship that transcends differences,

Joy in a shared journey….

Day 331 - Gratitude as a Way of Living

    Of all the pathways to Love, gratitude may be the finest...and the easiest.
   Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because of its central focus: gratitude. Thanksgiving also seems to be the holiday least interrupted by the noise of materiality and commercialism. There are no obligations to give physical presents at Thanksgiving. Therefore, retailers tend to flood the airways, the paper-ways and cyberspace with fewer seductions to "buy, buy, buy." (Except, of course, for the intrusion of early Christmas ads.)
   The "present" Thanksgiving calls us to is be a warm and grateful presence to ourselves and others. Each year, Thanksgiving teaches me the same lesson and each year, I find myself forgetting it.
   Gratitude is a way of living for too few people. And it is a choice for us all - everyday.
   Every time we choose to live Gratitude, we are opening the door to Love. In through that door comes a cornucopia of gorgeous gifts. Many of the happiest memories we have come through grateful remembrance.
   The way we live gratitude gives a gift to all around us. Children watch for signs of gratitude from parents. Caregivers watch for the same signs from each other. We can all learn richer ways to live gratitude by watching the world with an open heart.
   On this day before Thanksgiving, I offer to YOU my deepest gratitude. Thank you for being a part of the community of people who engage the Journal. Thank you for your gifts as a caregiver. Thank you for seeking to live Love, not fear.

-Erie Chapman

Day 330 - The Third Choice - A Strategy for Dealing with Fear

   My understanding is that fear is a primitive reaction that awakens in us the human chemistry of our adrenals. A "tiger" chases us. Involuntarily, a burst of adrenaline flares through our bodies, supplying us with energy to run faster or to fight with enhanced strength.   
   At such a moment, humans actually have three choices: 1) to run, 2) to fight, 3) to find another alternative. What is the alternative to fleeing or fighting? It is Love.
    Some Christians thrown to lions during the period of the persecution simply yielded to what they saw as inevitable. They chose the path of Daniel. They neither ran nor fought. Without fear, they raised their eyes to some higher place and surrendered. 
   Should we surrender when chased by forces that seem stronger than ourselves? In the unlikely event that we're chased by a tiger, we need, of course, to find an escape route. Yet, when confronted by threats from other humans, we can choose the special courage to respond with Love.
   What can you do in the presence of the threatening tiger of a boss? Many "run." They do this by hiding under a mask of compliance. They apple-polish frantically as a fear-based strategy to save their jobs. Alternatively, they literally try to dodge the radar of the boss's scanning eyes by being where the boss isn't
    Some may also choose to fight tyranny with a sort of eye-for-an-eye approach. They may respond to abusive treatment with abusive and hostile language. In other words, they may choose retaliation and revenge - choosing to sink to the same level as their abuser.
   Martin Luther King showed us the pathway to a third choice. He always counseled that we be both "tough-minded and tender-hearted." In the 1950s and '60s, he responded to abuse from misguided Southern sheriffs, Mayors, and governors with dignity, respect and Love. In other words, King chose the pathway laid down by Jesus. He paid no honor to fear or to his enemies. He stood strong and graceful. Jesus' surrender to the cross was not driven by fear. He chose a far more loving path.
   Responding to fear with The Third Choice of Love is the hardest thing humans ever do. When we are living in fear, we are living away from Love's energy. That is why courage is the only bridge that can carry us from fear back to Love's light. Like Daniel, we can open our hearts to God.
   The Third Choice calls us to rise above our most primitive instincts. When we make The Third Choice our first choice, we are, of course, choosing God.

   How would you express your own understanding of the way to make this third choice? How do you see others making this kind of third-choice decision in their work and their lives?

-Erie Chapman

   

Day 329 - Fear in the Mirror - The Other Choices to Love

Our opening to last Friday's headline quote has provoked some interesting responses. The quote we continue to offer to you is this: "Whatever the question, Love is the answer."

   And the follow up question for this Thanksgiving week becomes: When we don't choose Love, what are some of the other ways we respond to life's questions? What happens when we encounter fear in our mirror and pick a fear-based response?
   Although I write and speak constantly about the subject of Love and the power of Love's energy, I notice that I frequently let fear dominate too many aspects of my life. The most typical example I see in the my soul's mirror is my tendency to try to control people and events in ways that reflect my own fears. I often try to control things that are clearly outside my control and don't always make the wisest choices around trying to change things I can control. I find myself trying to change the behavior of people around me through commands and complaints instead of by recognizing that the attitude I have the best chance of changing is my own.
   At a personal level, fear choices becomes a double frustration. For example, I may try to change the behavior of a fellow staff member with some kind of command or complaint. When I am met with resentment, I discover that I have: 1) upset my colleague instead of affirming them, 2) upset myself. I hate it when I take the shortcut of interfering with someone's life in ways that sound judgmental instead of loving.
   Every time I answer a life question in front of me with fear instead of Love, I depart from Love's energy. Fear is toxic, Love is healing.
   What are some of the questions you encounter in your daily life where you find yourself responding out of fear instead of Love? How can you find a way for Love to help you answer the same questions differently?

-Erie Chapman

Days 326-328 - Open Forum on Loving Care

Whatever the question, Love is the answer. - Written on a blackboard at Alive Hospice in Nashville.

   When I asked Karen York of Alive Hospice about the above quote, she said, "I thought I got that from you." No matter where it came from, I love this statement.
   Imagine if we all responded to EVERY question in life with Love. What do you think? Is it really true that Love is the answer to EVERY question?

-Erie Chapman

Day 325 - Building Community

"Community offers the promise of belonging and calls for us to acknowledge our interdependence. To belong is to act as an investor, owner, and creator of this place. To be welcome, even if we are strangers. As if we came to the right place and are affirmed for that choice." - Peter Block

Today's meditation was written by Cathy Self, Senior Vice-President for the Baptist Healing Trust.

     The best of community seems to lie in the quality of relationships. A number of scholars have referred to the cohesiveness of community as social capital, although in the language of Love such a phrase may sound harsh and depersonalized. Community is about the potential for mutuality, reciprocity, and trustworthiness among members, and as such stands to be of great worth within any organization. It is why we place great value on the practice of community circles within the Healing Hospital. Among many important aspects of building community, the asking of questions is vital to the possibility of transformative work and engagement.  We must guard, however, not to rush to "the answer." According to author Peter Block, while answers may meet our need for quick results and can be very satisfying, answers can also shut down discussion and "the future shuts down with them."

     There is an exquisite tension in the exploration of a truly powerful question that we sometimes seek to relieve through argument, analysis, explanation, and defensive reaction. Truly transformative questions result in requests, offers, forgiveness, gratitude, and welcome. It is in that transformative place that co-creation occurs. The nature of our questions either keeps existing systems locked in place or creates the possibility for an alternative future and potential. In seeking to build community, our challenge is to become aware of the mindset that a different future can be negotiated, dictated, controlled, or engineered into being. Building community asks that hidden agendas for dominance and "rightness" be left behind and instead that we bring open hearts and minds from a place of Love and respect for ourselves and each other.

     In our healthcare systems, we seem particularly trained to solve problems, to "know" the answers. Questions that are asked with the intention of changing others reinforce the ideology that there is a problem to be solved, and create divisiveness rather than a place of belonging and community. Peter Block suggests questions that build community invite all members to the co-creation of future possibilities. The answers are not the focus. Rather, it is in the conversation where discovery is invited, however difficult or unpredictable the process may be. It is in that conversation that we are invited to bring personal meaning, passion, and commitment to relationship.

     Healing lies in the possibility that is created when need is met by Love. Here are two questions that can help point us to a different future, a future of healing and radical love: 1) what do we want to create together that would make the difference, and 2) what can we create together that we cannot create alone?

     This is a place where we can build community through shared responses of personal meaning, passion, and commitment to each other. I hope you will accept the invitation to join and help us create a different future for those we serve.

    

 

Day 324 - Love's Wisdom

[The following reflection was written by Liz Wessel, M.S.N, (left) Director of Mission for St. Joseph Health Services in Orange, California]

   I offer these reflections to open a window into my soul, where I can share my heart with you. I find the fabric of this world less real than what is invisible to the eye. When I look through the lens of the material world, my focus is on getting my basic needs met through self-reliance. I try to avoid any mishap that might befall me. I see that my cell phone is charged, I have gas in my car, money for incidentals, that I am dressed for the weather, etc. My aim is to avoid discomfort and foster self-preservation. Yet, when I look through the lens of the spirit, I behold a Love that manifests and extends abundantly through sharing all that we are and all that we have with others. The only truth I know is Love. Why then, is it so difficult to Love?

   I have learned that a deep fear underlies and influences how I live my life, the fear that I cannot escape death. Although fearful I am fascinated too by the great mystery and meaning of both life and death. I realize that someday, I too will lose all that I cherish in this life. I guess we all must come to terms with our own eventual death. One common way to cope is to pretend that death does not exist. People often avoid talking about death for fear that the mere mention might hasten the onset. I’ve noticed how this underlying fear can lead to a resistance of living our life’s full potential.

Resistance is an invisible but powerful force. Life is change and sometimes we resist the changing seasons of our lives. I share this quote from an anonymous author. “When the door of happiness is closed, another opens; but many of us continue to look at the closed door. As a result we often fail to see the new door with its new opportunities.”  Change is difficult but a necessary condition in life. I have heard it said that we die a thousand little deaths each day. Perhaps we can learn to use these experiences to prepare and teach us how to stop resisting and surrender to the natural flow and rhythms of life and death.

In my nursing career, I have accompanied many a person throughout the process of dying. You might say I’ve been a mid-wife of sorts, helping birth a person through a sacred portal into eternal Love. I was 21, when I had my first encounter helping a person who had incurable cancer. Margie was a close family friend who was only 42 when she died of cancer at home. I was able to be there for her because the power of Love proved stronger than all my fears. Sure, I was scared but I believed it was important to be there for a person when they needed someone the most. My mom taught me this life lesson at the tender age of 10 when I was critically ill with spinal meningitis. She remained by my side and it was her Loving presence that helped me to survive. Throughout life, I’ve tried to respond to the call to help people in their time of dying. Love’s shares her wisdom in communion with others.

 

“Resplendent and unfading is Wisdom, and she is readily perceived

by those who love her, and found by those who seek her.

She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of men’s desire;

he who watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed, for he shall

find her sitting by his gate.

For taking thought of her is the perfection of prudence, and he who

for her sake keeps vigil shall quickly be free from care;

Because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and

graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them in solicitude.”

 ~Wisdom 6:12-16

 

My brother John Sorensen died on Nov.1, 2008 on All Saints Day. Sometimes sharing conversation helps our family sift through the emotions of loss and the feelings of unreality. Some have asked me, how could God cause such pain and suffering? I can only tell you that God is Love and Love does not inflict pain or suffering. We may not be able to control what happens to us but we do have a choice about how we respond and John responded with great courage and a grateful heart. To those who ask where was God in all of this. I say, God was there to ease suffering through our family who poured out extraordinary Love. God’s voice was strong in the friends and relatives who visited and reminisced about meaningful experiences. God’s hands provided healing through those who sat and held John’s hand. God’s Love was visible as a constant quiet presence that offered comfort and light in the darkest of nights.

My sister expressed a deep sadness that Johnny seemed unaware of how much he was loved until late in life. Yet is this not a lesson for all of us? How easy it is for us to slip into the routine patterns of daily life and take life and those we love for granted.  Yet lurking beneath the surface of life is the fear and perceived threat of death. We feel a need to protect ourselves, as the world seems threatening and filled with conflict. We react to life’s stressors with a distrustful stance. We hold back from giving our Love freely. It is so easy to put up defenses and shut people out. We resist opening our hearts, resist-showing vulnerability and may instead mask our feelings by acting callous and indifferent.  We resist life’s uncertainty and feeling our fear by keeping overly busy. We resist life’s fragile nature by trying to control events and the people around us. We may become jealous and possessive with our love. We resist accepting others as they are and try to mold them into someone else. We resist ourselves by projecting on to others all that we find unacceptable and intolerable in ourselves. We think we are separate from Love, separate from God and one another. Until one day, death taps us on the shoulder, to give us a warning and we awaken. Suddenly, the truth becomes clear; only Love is real, nothing else matters.

This is the lesson. Now is the time. The light of Love is the call to awaken. I am determined to learn the lesson. I want to find meaning in my brother’s death and continue to shine the light of his Love. What can we do to bring more Love into this world? Awaken. Say yes, and open the door of your heart. Love is patiently waiting for you; can you hear her gentle voice calling you by name?

At age 53, my perspective is shifting from resistance to a softening acceptance. Curiously, I no longer seem to live in fear of death because death is only in the physical realm. I am open to receive the gift of Love and forgiveness. No longer, do I struggle to be the author of my life but instead I am open to listening and receiving divine guidance. I believe that the secret to my healing is you. As I Love you, so I Love myself, as I forgive you, so I forgive myself. The basis of this spiritual truth lies in the realization that we are not separate from God, one another, or Love. When I see your true essence, I see the face of God, the light of Love, which is, was, and always will be present in you and in me. Love is abundant, and when Love is shared it expands out exponentially simply because it cannot be contained; our Love is eternal.

  

~Liz Wessel

Day 323 - The Beauty of Peace

Peace is always beautiful.  -Walt Whitman

   This past Sunday, my wife and I traveled to Ohio for the funeral celebration of a dear friend's mother. Mimi Tomlinson brought cheer to all those around her as one of the pioneering women of radio and television in Columbus and as a beloved mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She also loved to party. When she died at age 87, everyone close to her knew she wanted her friends to party, not attend a somber funeral. And that's what over a hundred folks of all ages did across a Sunday afternoon.
   For most of the celebration, though, I thought about how Mimi is now at peace. Her bodies' journey is complete. Now, she can rest in eternity with none of the cares of the world to trouble her.
   We want loved ones who have passed away to "Rest in Peace." We certainly don't wish for them a troubled journey through eternity. The lives we live are hard enough much less to have that trouble continue after we die.    
   One of the things I like about Walt Whitman's poetry is that it is direct, even blunt. Notice, in the quote above, that he does not describe peace as something that is sometimes beautiful or occasionally beautiful. It is always beautiful.
   Why should he qualify or restrict the beauty of peace? True peace describes serenity, grace and calm.
   How do we know peace unless we have understood it in the context of its opposite? Peace seems especially sweet, for example, in the wake of great conflict. After the fires of war, the cooling breezes of peace arrive on the wings of doves.
   How well did the people of southern California appreciate peace before recent fires darkened skies and ravaged precious lives and beloved homes. Californian's long, now, for relief from the threat of fire. They long for peace. As someone who grew up in California, I came to think of it as paradise only after our family moved away to the winter clime of northern Ohio when I was twelve. It was during decades of long Ohio winters that I found myself wishing for the beautiful peace of my California days.
   Yet, we know that peace is not something that comes to us from weather or even from the absence of war. Peace comes from within not from without.
   As you go about your caregiving work, you notice that there are many who maintain a sense of peace in the presence of emergency and conflict. They sustain this serenity because they have found peace in the only place it exists - and that is within their hearts.
   How do you nurture peace in your heart?

-Erie Chapman

Day 322 - The Continuous Beauty of the Soul

The soul is always beautiful, it appears more or it appears
less, it comes or it lags behind.  - Walt Whitman

   If the soul is always beautiful and everyone has a soul, then how can the soul be beautiful in someone who is evil? For example, was Hitler's soul beautiful?
   Perhaps the answer is that all souls are beautiful because the soul is Love. Love knows only beauty. The meanness that flows from many people is not arising from their souls. Instead, it comes from some other place, probably from a distortion in the ego that interferes with the soul's expression the way noise can block the clarity of an energy signal.
   Meaningful reflection on this concept may help us understand why people like Mother Theresa and Albert Schweitzer (left, at work in his mission in Africa) seem like angels. Anger, bitterness and hatred blocked whatever light may have existed in the soul's of evil-acting men like Hitler and Stalin.
   People like Mother Theresa, Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi opened their hearts to Love. Because they were open to Love's energy, Love's light shot through these world hero's so brightly that the world was illuminated by their presence. 

   In the same way, Love's light moves through the souls of individual caregivers. It travels through the soul of nurse Deadre Hall, who brings beauty into the lives of patients and caregivers alike in her work in the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit at Nashville's Baptist Hospital.
   Think of the soul as a light transmitter. When we are able to get our egos out of the way, light shines though us and into the hearts of others. When we allow ego needs like anger, selfishness and revenge to cloud our lives, we are blocking the transmission of Love's light.
   Does this make sense to you? How do you, as a caregiver, keep your ego from blocking Love's light and smothering the beauty within you? How do you enhance Love's pathway through your soul?

-Erie Chapman

Days 318-321 - Watching

The following meditation was written by Cathy Self, Senior Vice President for the Baptist Healing Trust.

Work\ n: an opportunity for discovering and shaping; the place where the self meets the world." (From David Whyte's Crossing the Unknown Sea. Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity.

     We have given thought this week about watching – watching nature’s mysterious changes of the season or noting the mysterious images of our dreams, reflecting on what has been, is, and might yet be.  A poet and guide to Fortune 500 organizations, David Whyte reminds us, however, that to “see” requires more than just our eyes and minds; seeing Love asks that our hearts be active and alert as well. In his book Crossing the Unknown Sea, Whyte reflects on the words of another remarkable poet, Derek Mahon who wrote the following lines, titled ‘Everything is Going to be All Right:’

 

 How should I not be glad to contemplate

the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window

and a high tide reflected on the ceiling.

There will be dying, there will be dying,

but there is no need to go into that.

The poems flow from the hand unbidden

and the hidden source is the watchful heart.

The sun rises in spite of everything

and the far cities are beautiful and bright.

I lie here in a riot of sunlight

watching the day break and the clouds flying.

Everything is going to be all right.

- Derek Mahon

 

David Whyte comments with deep insight “Derek Mahon’s arrival at this astonishing…frontier arises from the fact that he is all attention; he has a tremendously watchful heart…”  It is in the morning, asserts Whyte, when we come to know ourselves in the world again. But then the day unfolds in meetings, conversations, papers, and doings and the essential intimate engagement with ourselves is lost. It takes a watchful heart to “see” and know Love. Great treasure lies in the unseen of what we call work. How does your watchful heart make visible the treasures within you?

Day 317 - You As A Poem

And your very flesh shall be a great poem.
Walt Whitman

   What is the poem we give to this world? Can it be that it is simply our existence? Our spirit enters the world in the form of whatever way we are en-fleshed. Through our flesh, we take, but we also give to others.
   Whether our life becomes a great poem or not may depend on the life choices we make. Or it may depend, also, on circumstance. Walt Whitman did, of course, write poems to the world through his lifelong writing of Leaves of Grass. But, he was a poem all by himself, even if he had written nothing. Look at the man. Consider his eyes and the way they gaze at us over through the ages.
   What we know about our life is that we exist. What we know is that we try our best to help when we can. This is the poem of the caregiver: to reach out to meet the need of another. Every time that happens, a poem is written. Every time that happens, God's Love has come into the world through us.
   Our "very flesh", no matter its form, becomes some kind of poem, some kind of expression of God in the world. And that is something to celebrate.
   Take a look at yourself. You are a poem. You are work of art. You are a human drama. And you are a gift from God.
   What does your life, as a caregiver, mean to you? How does your life as a caregiver express itself as poetry?

-Erie Chapman

Day 316 - Attending to Dreams

Now I pierce the darkness, new beings appear,
The earth recedes from me into the night,
I saw that it was beautiful, and I see that what is not the
   earth is beautiful.
-Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass - begun in 1855, completed in 1891 - Painting - Dream of Joseph, by Rembrandt)

   We are so locked to the everyday consciousness of the world that I wonder how much we attend to the dreams we so often experience. Caregivers are present when patients enter so many different states of consciousness. If you have ever been under an anesthetic and retain some memory of that, you will know what I mean. Even anesthetics as common as nitrous oxide can create strange images, lifting us out of the dentist's chair and into another world (which is typically a lot better than any dentist's office!)
   When my wife was recovering from anesthesia after a procedure a few years back she referred to the nurses around her as angels and continued to address them in this grateful, if dreamy, way for many minutes. When I was under anesthesia myself, recently, I remember marveling at the extraordinary skill of the two caregivers working on me. How could they move their hands so skillfully? I wondered. I, at that stage of consciousness, could not have performed the simplest of gestures.
   How should we attend to our dreams and what can they tell us as caregivers? Perhaps the most important thing is for us to respect what our dreams tell us rather than to dismiss them as we so often do.
   Our dreams remind us of the varied states of consciousness our spirits inhabit. In dreams, and in other altered states, our bodies can fly, we exist in multiple places at the same time, we can visit other eras, and we may engage in behavior unimaginable to our everyday lives. All of this tells us that we will all occupy another consciousness some day and it is likely to be far beyond anything we imagine.
   Meanwhile, caregivers are privileged to attend to people who may be in a very different state at this moment. This is why recovery room nurses are encouraged to speak to unconscious patients as if they were conscious. It is also why we need to address the elderly, stroke victims, and babies as if they understood us. At some level, what all beings know is whether they are in the presence of love's light. This is the eternal dream for all of us.
   How do your dreams and dreaming inform your everyday life?

-Erie Chapman

Day 315 - Singing the Body Electric

    I see my soul reflected in nature,
As I see through a mist, one with inexpressible completeness, sanity, beauty...
- from "I Sing the Body Electric" in Leaves of Grass,(1855) by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

   Do you, like Whitman, see your soul reflected in nature? If you do, and you live in a a four-season climate, you are watching the dying season. Three hundred fifteen days into this year, nature is shedding her leaves The ground is seizing up in the presence of cold nights.
   Our clothes change color as well. Pink and yellow have given way to purple, brown and black.
   What happens to our souls as the earth turns through the season? Whitman was a keen observer of this. A volunteer nurse during the Civil War, he threw his passion into loving others and into expressing his own love through transcendent poetry. Considered by many to be the father of free verse, Whitman's language was so open and unrestrained that some thought his work was obscene.
   "I sing the body electric," he wrote, "Arms and hands of love, lips of love...the body of the woman I love, the body of the man, the body of the earth."  It was all too much for conservative preachers and stiff-necked business people.
   Those folks missed Whitman's point. The poet sought to celebrate the bodies we occupy for such a short time. He wrote of pain as well as of joy. And he looked, courageously, at "The gash'd bodies on battle-fields,/ the insane in their strong-door'd rooms, the sacred idiots, the new-born emerging from gates,/ and the dying emerging from gates..." 
   You, as a caregiver, see what Whitman saw. You see pain and have the chance to relieve it, you see birth and have the chance to guide it, you see death and have the chance to ease it through "the gates."
   Caregivers, I sing your praises today and everyday. For you are the ones who offer your loving energy to meet the needs of bodies and souls who experience the pain of living in this world.
   How do Whitman's words come to you on this Monday? How do you see your soul reflected in nature as well as in the eyes of those for whom you care?

-Erie Chapman

Days 312-314 - Open Forum Question on Love & Fear

   How would you describe the balance of Love and fear in your life? For example, how much of your life is governed by fear and worry as opposed to Love and serenity?
   Conscious awareness of questions like these has helped me to reduce the level of fear in my own life. In any given day I found myself fearing or dreading everything from a visit to the dentist to a public speaking engagement to worries about the safety of my grandchildren. As I became aware of these fears, I began to let them go trusting, instead, to Love.
  It's not easy, of course. Fear often sneaks back into my life in spite of these efforts. But, I am less likely to let it dominate any given hour than I was in the past.
  How about you?

-Erie Chapman 

Day 311 - A Call to Act (from Love)

 Today's meditation was written by Cathy Self, Senior Vice President for the Baptist Healing Trust.

     Agape is a love that is pure and unlimited for every human being without exception. According to Sir John Templeton, all of the world's religions, to varying degrees, teach and assume a priority of love. What scholars have discovered is that agape is not based on feelings or on how we are treated by others, but is rather unconditional and unlimited in its expression. Agape love is given for its own sake without any expectation of return. Despite differences, we can gather in unity around the highest of principles in the realization of agape among us.

     Among the traditions of the world are the practices emerging from Native American spirituality. Within that tradition is a poignant call to act from love. The "call to action" comes from the Cree tribe and was spoken by a teacher and storyteller of that people:

"According to my tradition, from the beginning of creation, every morning, when the sun comes up, we are given four tasks by our Creator for that day. First, I must learn at least one meaningful thing today. Second, I must teach at least one meaningful thing to another person. Third, I must do something for another person, and it will be best if that person does not even realize that I have done something for them. And, fourth, I must treat all living things with respect. This spreads these things throughout the world."

     The word meaningful implies something important, something that extends well beyond the "word of the day" or paying for my friend's cup of coffee. What is meaningful, however, to another may not be of value to me. It takes effort to discern what is another's deepest need and how I might meet that need.

     Agape in the Native American context affirms that all things are part of the web of life. To serve with this love is to be willing to learn, to share and give, to love for Love's sake alone without exception or expectation of reward. Agape is active and joy-filled, an invitation, a call to act. The words that emerge from the Native American tradition challenge us to consider Love in its active form. These are not new ideas, but in the rhetoric of difference it is so easy to lose sight of what is most important. We are called to Love, to agape - and beyond that there is no more noble a way to respond.

Day 310 - Choosing Love

   Like any big contest, the day after any national presidential election can bring strong feelings one way or another. These feelings will depend, for you, on how invested you felt in the victory of any one candidate.
   The thing that has concerned me most about this election has been the degree to which so many people seemed fearful. I heard many describe their worries that if one candidate or the other was victorious terrible things would happen.
   Our American system of government, more than any in the world, has established a brilliant set of checks and balances to minimize the abuse of power. But the real protection against fear does not lie in laws, votes or political decisions. The real hope lies in living love not fear.
   I hope this day will bring some sense of peace for you as you contemplate the option we all have to choose love.

-Erie Chapman

Day 309 - Mirror Theology

   "Let the one among you who is without sin cast the first stone." - Jesus 

   The inside pages of the weekend paper carried a tiny, one paragraph story of the kind no one wants to read. It was nearly buried on page 9.
   On October 27, 2008 in the city of Kismayo, Somalia, a crowd of one thousand people gathered in a stadium to watch a horrifying scene. 13-year old Aisha Duhulow appeared before the crowd as the victim of a gang rape. But her judges had somehow found her guilty of adultery. There in that stadium, in front of a crowd that had become an image of hatred, young Aisha was stoned to death.  
   This appalling display of savagery and twisted religion is hard to comprehend. Yet, these kinds of atrocities extend even into the United States where, recently, a Georgia man strangled his 25-year old daughter to death as an "honor killing." The daughter's crime? She left her husband.
   How does God permit such things? The clear answer is that God/Love does NOT encompass evil. Love is powerful, but, sadly, Love does not control the world. That is why we must constantly awaken to Love and let her flow through us.
   Love waits for us to engage her energy. When we turn our backs on Love, she can do little to help us. When caregivers meet the crying need of another, they are reflecting God's Love.  
   God is reflected back to us every time we see Love. We can only see Love outside of us when we have first seen Love within. If a single one of person in the 1000-member crowd had stepped forward and tried to shield Aisha, that would have become the true expression of God in that stadium.
   As I've often written, it's odd how we all look up for God when God is not up but in. Beauty outside of us is a mirror for beauty within. When we are open to the beauty of a rose or a wrinkled face or three notes of music we are gazing at or listening to the presence of God in this world.
   Mirror theology is the idea that we can reflect back Love's light into the world. We don't create Love, we reflect it.  
   I wonder what thoughts Aisha had about God in her final moments? Perhaps, I pray, she was able to see past the crowd of hateful faces to find the eyes of compassion. Surely, she is with God now.

-Erie Chapman

Day 308 - Soup & Guns

     No one under the age of eighty can recall an economy that's been as bad as the one we're in right now. In the midst of these dire time, some financial analysts began searching for which companies might be thriving. Some of their findings were startling.
   It turns out that Americans are increasing their purchases of soup. As the stock of other companies crashes, Campbell Soup is thriving. Maybe this isn't so surprising. Soup is a comforting and generally inexpensive treat. You can store most brands of soup for a long time. People around our office know I'm a long time fan of soup.
   The other image is much darker. Sales of guns and ammunition are up 8-10%. It turns out Americans are increasingly worried about threats from their fellow humans. They've decided to arm themselves for protection against some imagined risk of rising crime. Their fear factor is soaring.
   Loving caregivers know that there is only one effective way to deal with rising need amid scarce resources. Love is fed by the eternal spirit. For those who may have centered their lives on money, these are terrifying times. Even for the rest of us, we mourn the rising challenges that center around meeting basic needs.
   Love, of course, is free. So is fear. But, as one great theologian once wrote, "love is free, but it's not cheap." Choosing love can feel expensive if love calls us to share our worldly goods with others.
   It's one thing for rich folks to worry about affording a third or a fourth car or a second home. It's quite another picture for caregivers who wonder if they can hold onto the one car they have and whether they can sustain the payments to live in the one home or apartment they occupy.
   In Nashville, I know caregivers who have had their cars repossessed and others who have lost their homes. Food banks here are strained and the one charity that shelters displaced families is in fragile financial shape. More emergencies loom.
   The answer to these new threats does not, of course, lie in guns and bullets. Now is a time when those who have must dig deeper to help those who have not.
   Love is never tested. Love never ends. But, we will be tested everyday on our ability to choose Love's pathway against the temptation to arm ourselves with the false security that comes from buying guns and hiding.
   What do you think?

-Erie Chapman