Journal of Sacred Work

Days 332-336 Conversations Between Body & Soul

   Stanford researchers confirm that our cells replace themselves every seven years. What about our souls? What does the soul know that the curving, sentient figure in the photograph does not? 

   Your soul defeats all attempts by armies of poets, theologians or scientists to describe it.

   But, consider Thomas Hanna's somatic approach - a unified self in a "dynamic lived body." Imagine your soul as an independent though integrated presence that watches & guides you through your life & beyond.   

   There is nothing "practical" about any of this. But do you ever wonder what conversations go on between your body & soul - between this beautiful breathing being & her proximate angel? 

   This is not a dialogue of words. The soul converses in more mysterious ways. That is why your heart experiences what you cannot describe to anyone. In the most serene rooms of your heart your soul whispers reassurances you alone hear when you lean your sacred ear towards her secret voice.

   Speaking through leaves, lakes, sky, skin & the eyes of another the soul urges the vigorous embrace of the body's vibrancy. As the figure fades the soul sings new music. "...The sun rises beyond the borderlands of death," Czeslaw Milosz wrote, "...where, beyond every essence, a new essence waits."

   In this "new essence" lies an existence unseen with "a sound and a color which are more and more perfect."

-Erie Chapman

Photograph, "Curving Figure" - by Dane Dakota 2014

Days 330-331 Hope

Note: shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel

 

 

"Hope is a communal virtue.

Now is the time to be community for each other

 - to help carry burdens, to share, to offer hope,

to trust, to love one another."

                                       ~Ministry of the Arts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mandala by ~liz

Days 325-329 Reaching For Help

   The umbilical cord had just been cut. Suddenly separated from his mother my grandson reached for help. Almost every baby does it.

   Soon enough, usually sooner than we would like, we are taught to quit that. To stand on our own. 

   Boys hear this early. "Act like a big boy" means "Act like a man" & that means "Don't cry," because crying & strength are incompatible. 

   Every professional & every leader knows this challenge. No patient or client wants their doctor or lawyer to break into anxious tears. 

   The stigma around crying remains real. During the 1972 Presidential campaign Senator Edmund Muskie gave a speech defending his wife from a newspaper attack. Outraged, he allegedly shed a few tears. Instead of owning up he denied the claim as "anger not tears." But, his campaign imploded. 

   When caught in sorrow's rooms each of us needs help - sometimes desperately. Henri Nowen says that heart healing requires the caregiver to create a safe space. Women are better at doing this for others & at reaching out themselves. Men, not so much. Recently, for the first time in many years I found myself in tears - not the soft kind but the ones that flow from drowning wells. 

   You have been there. You have had times when you looked around amid your loneliness & wondered: Who can help? Should I even ask? It is easy to say, "Of course, you should." But if you are reading this you are probably not a man. Only a few males regularly read the Journal. Those men know what I mean.

-Erie Chapman 

Days 323-324 Trusting In Our Effort

Do you ever feel that you are not up to the task? Often I am at a loss for what I might journal here, so I tend to choose something in the midst of my experience… meaningful in the present.

At times, I am on empty and I wonder where any creative energy or inspiration will come from, certainly not from me, and I am unsure that I can even be a vessel for the light to shine through. Especially, if I am tired or doubting that I am in the right state of receptiveness…

Why is it that we think we have to prepare ourselves, to become something better than we are, in order to be in God’s presence? Yet, Love is ready to receive us just as we are… now; in our vulnerability and in our brokenness with hospitality and acceptance.

Ironically, perhaps it is when we are most empty that God chooses to reveal Himself.

 

Our work is one of greeting and farewell. 

We greet each moment and we let it go. 

We greet each breath and we let it go. 

We greet each patient and we let go into the encounter. 

They may tell us how they are meeting their life challenge, or they may not think they are able to meet their life as it is. 

Just as sometimes we might not think we are able to meet our life as it is, or as we imagine it may unfold. 

So our work is to come back to meeting our life in this moment. 

 In the only moment we have.

To do our best at coming to balance in this moment, to coming to ease. 

Trusting that this effort,

this posture of balance,

this request for intercession,

this opening of our hearts,

this exhalation is always accessible

and our intention is one of peace. 

With this intention and this effort we care for our life.

~Rev. Annette Lille

...And in our cherished relationships we care for one another, as we weave sacred threads into the tapestry of our lives. 

Liz Sorensen Wessel

Photo’s: Kauai's  mist and Laura's quilt by ~liz

 

Days 319-323 Folds of Grace

   I am intoxicated by the shapes & shadows of this world, fascinated by what they represent & enchanted by the energy each form offers to an open heart. You can suppose that the furrows created in Cordelia's dress when she bends forward are mere wrinkles. For me, they are as electric as the words in a Walt Whitman poem or the notes in a Chopin sonata.

   This picture evokes a line written by Homer millennia ago in The Odyssey, "So you, in form, are excellent, - better God could not fashion...."

   This is the beauty that calls to us every day. Liz Wessel & I write about loveliness as an offering into the sometimes gray lives of caregivers.

   Work at any job for ten, twenty or thirty years & it becomes hard to see the elegance around us. When we find it our days breathe meaning.

   What seams & shadows decorate the sheets you tuck around a patient? What do you see in the wrinkles of the old man to whom you offer comfort? What light glows from the skin of the newborn babies you lift into this world? 

   The world harbors dark pain. The world offers startling folds of grace. 

-Erie Chapman

"Cordelia's Dress" - Erie, 2016

Days 317-318: May You Always Be...

"Let sorrow be the door to an open heart."  Jennifer Berezen

Some of us grieve, others rejoice. Through what lens do you look upon our world? Through a lens of separateness and fear or through the lens of love? I suspect for most of us see through the lens of both shadow and light. Yet, with mindfulness we begin to catch glimpses beyond the mote that obscures our sight.

We pause to express of our grief, come together to share the state of our heart. As we speak the truth of our experience we  discover the light of our essence giving rise to mutual hope.

It seems that more than ever our prayers are needed; collectively positive intentions are a powerful force that can overcome darkness and oppression.

The recent turn of events has been a wake-up call for me, no longer can I linger in complacency. We all need to be awake, alert to take notice and stand up for what matters.  Our polarized views results in a detrimental paralysis. We need to reach out to people of differing views,  beyond self-interest, in search of a middle ground.

Yesterday, Sr. Carol Keenan from the Catholic Health Association offered congratulations to President elect, Donald Trump. She acknowledged the responsibility we all have to work together for the good of our country. She stressed, that although the Affordable Care Act can be improved, it has been a first important step in providing healthcare to millions of Americans. She advised caution when considering making changes because healthcare is essential to the well-being of people in our communities. Unfortunately the ACA has been the most politicized program in our history, creating significant barriers to its success.

Keenen emphasized, “This election has confirmed that we must get beyond this pattern and begin focusing on the people's business. We at CHA commit ourselves to working with all people of goodwill in this new administration to make health care delivery worthy of the dignity of all the people of our country. We must not allow their health care to continue to be politicized. Too much is at stake. We can and should proceed with caution and concern as we deal with this important issue.”

Healer of Our Every Ill

Breathe in and among all of us who dwell in this land.

Sooth our wounds. Calm our fears.

Mend our divisions.

Hope for all tomorrows,

Open our deaf ears and fill us with compassion.

Tender our hearts.

Inspire creative ideas to address the cries of our sisters, brothers and Earth herself.

Send forth your Spirit of Love and Unity.

Transform pointed fingers of blame into hands open in reverence to receive one another.

Fan into flame the gift of our founding

And let us be known again as a people

United for goodness, justice and peace of all people forever. Amen

Anon

Life is too short for anything less than Love.

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Photo of Tree by ~liz 

 

Days 312-316 - A Healing Time & The Power of Catch Phrases

   In 1978 famed stress expert Hans Selye addressed the American Hospital Association.    

   "I've written over twenty books on stress & health," Dr. Selye told us. "My publisher said I had to reduce my work to a simple brochure." (The audience chuckled.) "Then my publisher asked me to condense my message to just one catch phrase." The audience laughed harder & waited expectantly.

   "Strive for your highest attainable aim but don't put up resistance in vain," Selye announced.

   We condemn sound bites...and we live by them (even as we recognize that no phrase can communicate the beauty in fading flowers.) "Make America great again." "I'm with her." 

   Is it the world's complexity that favors Tweets over thoughtful analysis? Politicians, particularly Donald Trump, understand the power of catch phrases. He is a genius at transforming otherwise decent folks into lynch mobs with a few words. Notice how he takes unproven allegations against Hillary Clinton, labels her "Crooked Hillary" & then goads his crowds into chants of, "Lock her up."

    Health care is also rife with catch phrases that affect health. My favorite was spoken by magazine editor Norman Cousins who encouraged the sickest among: "We are so much stronger than we think we are." He knew whereof he spoke. He had survived a terminal diagnosis by defying his doctor's advice & healing himself with laughter.

   Caregivers can engage their healing skills in the wake of this election stress. Consider the healing in Beth Ritter-Conn's ten word phrase, "...healing has to begin where hurt has been the greatest."

   Here is a four-word condensation of my life work: Live love, not fear.

   Saint John, however, needed only three to deliver history's finest catch phrase: "God is love." 

-Erie Chapman

Photograph by Erie

Days 310-311: Your Infinite Source

Note from Liz Wessel: This reflection is dedicated to my colleagues who I have had the privilege to serve alongside; with gratitude for the love you have woven into the hearts and souls of the many lives you have touched. Thank you for helping to build a strong foundation and a lasting legacy at our ministry.

 

This is where your life has arrived,

After all the years of effort and toil;

Look back with graciousness and thanks

On all your great and quiet achievements.

 

You stand on the shore of new invitation

To open your life to what is left undone;

Let your heart enjoy a different rhythm

When drawn to the wonder of other horizons.

 

Have the courage for a new approach to time;

Allow it to slow until you find freedom

To draw alongside the mystery you hold

And befriend your own beauty of soul.

 

Now is the time to enjoy your heart’s desire,

To live the dreams you’ve waited for,

To awaken the depths beyond your work

And enter into your infinite source.

                                                                                      ~By John O’ Donohue

 

Father, today I leave creation free to be itself. I honor all its parts, in which, I am included. We are one because each part contains Your memory, and truth must shine in all of us as One.

~ A Course in Miracles

With Abundant Love & Gratitude
~liz

Photo: Bliss Farm, Stowe Vermont October 2016