Journal of Sacred Work

Days 333-334 For Beauty’s Sake

They were born at the same hour, same day and year, on June 13, 1935 but they grew up in different parts of the world. He was a refugee from Bulgaria and she came from a military family in Casablanca, Morocco.  Perhaps, serendipitous or what some might call divine destiny, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude met in Paris in 1958, and were united. In 1964, the couple moved to New York City and discovered home.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were compelled by an artistic vision. In 1979, they approached New York City officials with a magnificent proposal to create art in the heart of the city.   Specifically, in Central Park, where they imagined thousands of gates draped in billowing saffron fabric, coursing through miles of the park’s scenic paths as a river of color.

Oddly enough, Christo and Jeanne-Claude were met with caustic cynicism and a wall of unshakable resistance. Not only were their motives questioned but so was the value of such an expensive undertaking was controvercial. Even though, the artists did not want funding for their multi-million dollar project that was anticipated to generate substantial revenue for New York. Ultimately, after two years of arduous attempts at persuasion the project was rejected.

Twenty-four years passed, and still Christo and Jeanne-Claude were passionate about realizing their dream. This time Mayor, Michael Bloomberg approved their proposal without any hesitation. Documentary footage by the Maysle brothers highlighted the diverse reaction of New Yorkers as The Gates concept was first introduced. Later, Mr. Ferrara joined the effort, which culminated in this visually stunning documentary. Ferrara described the five year making of the film as “an incredible opportunity and challenge to realize the impossible.”

The Gates contrasting color amid winter's stark bleakness was a glorious Hallelujah. The Gates intertwined with the landscape of Central Park to form a unique intimacy in the dance of life. Some hoped that the artists would extend The Gates beyond the planned 16 days, to which the artists responded, “Our works are temporary in order to endow the works of art with a feeling of urgency to be seen, and the love and tenderness brought by the fact that they will not last. Those feelings are usually reserved for other temporary things such as childhood and our own life. These are valued because we know that they will not last. We want to offer this feeling of love and tenderness to our works”.

 Postscript:  Mayor Bloomberg announced, “The Gates attracted over 4 million visitors to Central Park and generated an estimated $254 million in economic activity.  The full economic impact of The Gates was felt not only in areas surrounding Central Park, but in hotels, restaurants, and cultural institutions across the City. Christo and Jeanne-Claude financed the entire cost of The Gates and did not accept any forms of sponsorship. The artists, did not accept volunteer support, but instead provided paid employment for 1,100 workers - including nearly 700 New York City residents - for the assembly, installation, maintenance, security, and removal of the work of art. They also donated $3 million to the City for programs and operations both in Central Park and other City parks.”

Truly, for Christo and Jeanne-Claude this was a labor of love for Beauty’s sake. 

Liz Sorensen Wessel

Original art sketches of The Gates and spectacular imagery can be viewed at the artist's website below. The HBO film, The Gates is readily available via media. 

www.christojeanneclaude.net/projects/the-gates

Photo: The Gates, courtesy Wikipedia

Days 328-330 - Opening Your Heart to the World

"Without opening your door, you can open your heart to the world." - Tao Te Ching

   A puzzle: How could anything come to you if you opened your heart to the world but had not even left your room? To enter you, Beauty comes not through the door in your room but the one in your heart.

   How can you open it? Even harder, how can you keep the portal to your spirit ajar if you are feeling unappreciated, unheard and panicked?

   Fear is the moat around the castle of your heart. It is the only thing that can stop God's Love from entering you.

   When my nine-year old grandson was four he awoke in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Halfway down the darkened hallway he called out for his dad.

   "Miles," my son told his, "you know how to do this by yourself."

   "Well," little Miles said. "Sometimes I'm a little bit brave of the dark. But, sometimes, I'm a little bit scared of the dark."

   Isn't this true of you? You move toward the light. Suddenly, fear kidnaps you into its shadows.

   We want to help a wounded person but fear the sight of his blood. We want to appreciate great art but become afraid when the woman in the painting is nude instead of "safely" clothed. 

   Tao wisdom says "There is no greater illusion than fear...Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe."

   In this Thanksgiving week let gratitude help free you from fear and you will not need the courage to be "brave of the dark." Love will provide. 

-Reverend Erie Chapman

Days 326-327 Hannah Wore Her Dancing Shoes

"The outcome of the world, the gates of the future...these are not thrown open to a few of the privileged nor to one chosen people to the exclusion of all others. They will open only to an advance of all together, in a direction in which all together can join and find completion in a spiritual renovation of the earth..."
-Teilhard de Chardin

Note special thanks to guest contributor Anne Milligan, singer, songwriter, musician, artist, counselor, lover of life, friend.

Hannah Grace:

 I was a shy and frightened child. Almost mute from the childhood

 loss of a parent. But I've never really been alone. Some gracious

 spirit has walked with me. Hannah appears again and again to

 revive my soul and remind me of why I am here in the world. Here

are the words to a song I wrote in one of those revival times... I

will leave the rest to your own imaginings and the Gracious Spirit

which lives and breathes in you...

"Come Dancing Hannah"

A child came on a dream.

Her face was concealed,

but her name revealed

some ancient echo from the past.

Hannah wore her dancing shoes, never used,

In a world that hadn't yet seen her.

 "Could we dance today?" (the child seemed to say),

"I want to dance into tomorrow!"

COME DANCING HANNAH!

The sun is high, and it's fine for dancing!

The night has gone, to the lowlands,

and the light has pierced your time of Silence.

Come dancing Hannah of my dreams.

We have a new dance, and a new chance,

 to try again. From the darkest night, comes the light,

 and the children of our dreams!

-- Anne Milligan

To listen to Anne perform her beautiful original music, "Hannah and Sophia in the Circle Dance"

go to: 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6IcIjWHQV0&feature=youtu.be 

(Copy and paste the link into your browser)

Thank you Anne Milligan for sharing your gorgeous heart and light-filled artwork, music and gift of extraordinary grace.

~liz

 

Days 324-325 - Saving A Princess

  My daughter wrote me recently that her little son fell off his bike recently. "Are you okay?" his mom asked, surprised to see that her boy wasn't crying. "Yes," the three-year old said. "I'm saving a princess!"

   Focused on his princess-saving mission, my grandson appeared to feel no pain. He could not know that his experience is true for all beings.

   Although she regularly tended the disease-ridden "poorest of the poor" in the shadowed streets of Calcutta Mother Theresa rarely became ill. A mother may suddenly pick up a half-ton car to free her baby stuck beneath it. 

   The mysterious yogis of India can endure enormous pain by doing in an exaggerated way what my grandson was doing in a moment. They can move there attention so far away from their pain that they seem not to feel it.

   Where attention goes, energy flows. It is an incredibly powerful notion and one you can learn to practice increasingly in your life.

   Align your energy with Love and you will feel your life transformed.

-Erie Chapman 

   

Days 321-323 - Just Add Water

   On a recent trip to Arizona I heard a longtime resident say, "Once they added water to this desert so many came."

   Just add water. It sounded like a recipe for life.

   No water, no living Earth. Is there water on Mars? If so, there might be (or might have been) life. 

   To make the sacred human form come alive, add water. We start life in the fluid of our mother's womb. Seventy-five percent of an infant's body is water.

   All of life needs water. We need it for cleanliness. We need it to slake thirst. Immerse yourself in water and you feel the comfort of its buoyancy.

   Gaze at a river, lake or ocean and wonder why it is that those ripples, that transparency and those waves are so fascinating. Water is part of sacred ritual. Many are baptized in it. 

   And there is rain. The mist. The particles that make up the mystery that is fog. And the snow that crystallizes it.

   Above all, water is a spiritual image. Jesus spoke of faith in God as living water.

  For caregivers like the nurses I spoke to in Phoenix water represents the ebb and flow of their calling. Sometimes, they feel as though they are drowning in work. Other times, they sail through their days, their sails filled with winds of hope.

   Of course, we need water's companion, oxygen. Too often, caregivers are out of breath, suffocating under the never-ending flow of people in deep need.

   Breathe in God's air. Bathe today in the clear water of hope. Drink the living water of Love and never be thirsty again.

 -Erie Chapman

 Photographs by Dane Dakota

Days 319-320 Hints of Gladness

 

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

–Mary Oliver, “When I Am Among the Trees” from "Thirst," (Beacon Press, 2006). 

 

Contributed by Liz Sorensen Wessel

Photos by Liz, Vermont Autumn, Oct. 2013

Days 314-318 - Love for all - Why Pope Francis is a Hero

   "You're going to hell," my friend Greg Oswald told me when I was twelve. "Why?" I asked. "Because you're not a Catholic," he announced.

   Greg's view is still shared by millions. But, Pope Francis isn't one of them. That is why many believe that his selection is a transcendent blessing.

   "The Lord has redeemed all of us with the blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics," the new pope has declared. "Everyone!" 

   My backyard reading of this pope's views tells me that his understanding of Radical Loving Care runs deep. His particular message of tolerance is nothing short of revolutionary for a church that has long held that only Catholics enter heaven. Many other religions recruit members with the same strange promise - only our believers will be saved. 

   Suddenly, this pope says all are redeemed. 'Father, the atheists?' he was asked. "Even the atheists. Everyone!" he repeated firmly.

   With one statement, Pope Francis began to redeem his church from centuries of religious bigotry.

   If Christians are the only ones who enter paradise what about all the people in China who had never heard of Christianity? I wondered as a kid.  Didn't you wonder the same? 

   Why is religious exclusiveness a problem? Hundreds of hospitals carry religious names signaling a loving mission. But in the past, that did not stop some from practicing discrimination.

   Organized religion is a mixed blessing. It offers lovely communities of believers and a way to develop personal spirituatiality. But too many wars and too much persecution have offset many of the gifts that religion offers.

   With a pope like Frances there would have been no need for Martin Luther to launch the Protestant Reformation. Back then, the Catholic Church made followers pay indulgences to get into heaven. (The "Protestant" name arose because Luther was protesting 16th Century Catholic practices.)

   This pope would never have allowed the tortures of non-Catholics in the Middle Ages. Yet today, in many parts of the world, Muslims discriminate against Christians, Christians discriminate against Hindus and Buddhists in Southeast Asia are being imprisoned for their beliefs.  

   In later life Luther himself demonstrated hypocrasy by turning anti-Semitic. And Lutherans and Catholics did little to stop the rise of Nazism in the 1930s.

   This past Saturday, November 9, marked the 75th anniversary of "Kristallnacht," the night when Nazi gangs burned Jewish establishments in Berlin and sent more than 30,000 Jews to concentration camps. Where were the so-called Christians as six million more were tortured and murdered in those camps?

   Our beliefs may be fine for us but do we have the right to force them on others, to make the arrogant assumption that every other path is wrong? Doesn't this feed Love's nemeses - discrimination? 

   Radical Loving Care teaches tolerance. Caregivers love patients because every human, "even the atheists," carries the spark of the divine.

-Reverend Erie Chapman

Note: November 11 is Veterans Day in America. May we honor all of our veterans all year long.

Days 312-313 Ubuntu

"I am what I am because of who we all are". - Leymah Gbowee.

Note: Today's reflection is offered by guest contributor Amy Martin.

Sometimes in life we come across terms, phrases or concepts that stay with us, ideas that permeate our dreams, our perspectives.  Oftentimes, those ideas are foreign or misinterpreted when they are translated into other languages.  Several months ago, while reading and researching for my doctoral coursework, I encountered one of those concepts.  It has been with me ever since.

Ubuntu is a term derived from indigenous African languages and is a core sociological and philosophical archetype.  Although Ubuntu is a way of life in Africa, it is a concept that is beyond a simplistic understanding.  It may be most known to the world by the writings and teachings of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu who have both so simply and elegantly explained and described its true nature.  Ubuntu is more than something we know as hospitality, inclusion, caring, harmony, respect, compassion or dignity.  It is the idea that we are all bound to one another.  It is a way of life and a way of seeing the world.  Ubuntu reminds us that we are all made of the same “stuff” – that we are all inhabitants of this place we call Earth, our home.

Ubuntu can have radical recompenses for cultures that are self-absorbed and solitary.  Think of your own life.  When was the last time you offered a neighbor a cup of tea or coffee?  The challenges of our world, including fear of violence, are all perfectly reasonable justifications for caution and restraint.  However, when we don’t know our neighbor, we don’t know ourselves.  Let us be inspired by Ubuntu and open our hearts and doors to others, celebrate our differences, and enrich our own lives by providing hospitality, inclusion, respect, recognition and humanity.

To see Ubuntu described by Nelson Mandela, visit this short YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HED4h00xPPA

Thank you Amy Martin for sharing your heart and hospitality with all of us.

And special thank you to Artist Maria Doglio for gifting us with her beautiful artwork. 

Days 307-311 - Today is the Day

"What if you had only a day in which to do the one thing that matters? Today is the day." -Jan Frazier

   "Today is the day." Or is it? Isn't it more likely that you and I will build a raft of excuses for why this is not the day and thus squander more of our precious moments or, like Bogart in "Casablanca," try to drink away whatever grief afflicts us.

   The good news is that you, as a caregiver, will in fact do many things that matter. You as a light bearer are engaged in meeting the needs of others. 

   The moments you waste are not because you do tasks but because you may do many of them mindlessly. I have this problem - especially because I love to daydream.

   Why do you and I live so much of our lives in this way - missing the actual moment in favor of savoring another?

   It is incredibly hard to live a mindful life. Fear dogs your steps and blocks your way to the freedom with which you were born - to living a joyful (though not necessarily happy) life. 

   What is remarkable is that the Love you seek is completely within your grasp. How maddening that Love seems so elusive when it is, in fact, here already. 

   I often wonder how many of us live as prisoners. You are free within your being yet you may allow fears of your supervisor, your mortgage or anxiety about illnesses that may befall you, to penetrate your natural serenity.

   Who are you within and outside your own skin? Today is your day to ask Love to answer that question for you.

-Erie Chapman

 

Day 305-306 From Darkness to Light

The scene opens with a young boy lying sick  in bed. His grandfather is reminiscing with him about his life and childhood. He recalls his own father reading to him when he was 10 and ill with pneumonia.

It is a story that has been passed on through the generations. In fact, it became the grandfather's all-time favorite story. He opens the worn torn book cover of “The Princess Bride” and cleverly engages his grandson as this imaginative story unfolds.

This epic tale is a light hearted adventure of a quest for true love  entwined amid the forces of good and evil. 

Years later, actor Mandy Patinkin reminisces about a famous line in the film. As he looks back,  he discovers, and reveals  a remarkable insight. Listen to this 1.5 min video by clicking on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rM_qWpD88g 

Recently, I visited my precious mom. She shared some snippets of her childhood remembrances, which I was able to capture on video. What stories give meaning to your life, you know, the favorite ones that you wish to relive and tell, again and again?

~liz Sorensen Wessel

Mandala by ~liz

 Note: The Princess Bride is a 1987 American romantic comedy fantasy adventure film directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner. It is based on the 1973 novel of the same name by William Goldman, an American novelist, playwright and screenwriter (Wikipedia).