Journal of Sacred Work

Days 330-334 - Our Universe is Tiny! The power of Morn1415

     Is our world vast or small? What about our galaxy? Could our universe actually be tiny amid the multiverse?

   It is all perspective, of course, & my perspective underwent a quantum change when I took a few minutes to watch a startling video. Nearly ten million others have watched the same, mind-expanding sequence. I hope you will be one more.

   Here is the link to this special experience:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoW8Tf7hTGA

   Since the so-called multiverse is millions of light years away many of our notions of it remain theoretical. Yet, there is no escaping a few conclusions. It is not just you & I who are mere pinpoints on this earth, the earth itself is a pinpoint. So is the sun. In the multiverse our "vast" solar system is barely visible because our universe is one among, potentially, billions.

   The film exercise starts with a firefly. By searching inside our bodies we can run the film's premise in reverse.

   Your body, with 37 trillion cells, is its own multiverse. Each cell has a hundred trillion atoms. How does a body begin? A fertile male human ejaculates 2 to 5 milliliters of semen. That means there are up to half a billion seamen in a single ejaculation, each seeking the solitary egg a woman releases during ovulation.  

   Look out through the Hubble telescope or within using an electron microscope & what appears is more & more dazzling complexity. None of that tells us what matters most.

   Love is our sun. We orbit it, live by its light, heat & gravity & sing about how much we need it to shine into our lives & our souls. How "big" is love? As large as God. 

-Erie Chapman

Screenshot from Morn1415 

Days 323-327 - Fitness

   The YMCA triangle is one of the world's best known logos. The one I grew up with, the one my dad, a fifty-year employee of the "Y," used on my birth announcement, contained three words that illuminated the arc of my childhood: Spirit, Mind, Body. 

   At first, the" spirit" was amorphous & the "mind" was boring. I could "see" the body & my dad was obsessed about keeping his (& mine) in shape. He had me doing calisthenics at three & did them himself into his late '80s. 

   My 105-year-old mom says her "secret" is genetics. Dad did not receive that break. Instead, his rigorous regimen enabled age 90 & kept him clear-headed until his last moments. 

  The picture (left) was taken about 1924. The one (right) in 1931. By then, Dad was a master swimmer, an AAU gymnast & a college boxing champion. 

   But, he would be the first to say that fitness is the balance of spirit, mind & body, not physical health alone. He would mourn the fitness levels of most caregivers.

   Health professionals know that physical fitness nurtures energy. But they often complain they do not have time for exercise.

   Dad, attending college & paying for it with night shift work at the Miller Rubber Company, did not have time either. So he shadow-boxed in the freight elevator, lifted boxes for fitness as well as work & walked whenever he could instead of riding.

   Most of us could take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk from the furthest spot in the parking lot instead of fighting for the closest one & tone muscles by lifting the grocery bag up & down ten times. We could walk (or run) with the dog for thirty minutes instead of five. 

Forty percent of Americans nap after Thanksgiving turkey. What if they took a 30 minute walk instead &, along the way, considered their fitness balance? How would your life change if you took one of those walks every day?

-Erie D. Chapman, III

Photos: Erie D. Chapman, Jr., circa 1924 & 1931.

Days 321-322 Harvest

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel 

"If the only prayer you say in your entire life is thank you that would suffice." Meister Eckhart

 

May you be quickened by the Spirit who fills the whole earth and lives in you.

May you stand firm and tall like a mountain.

May you move through the world like the wind, listening to the secrets alive in your heart and the hearts of others.

May the holy Fire that burns in you become bright, become Love - a passion for justice and unity in our world.

May you be life-giving water for all, shaping and being shaped, flowing into the fullness of God.

Blessing by Mary Southard, CSJ, Compliments: Ministry of the Arts

 

 I wish to express my gratitude for the blessings you have bestowed so generously

beauty

encouragement

love 

friendship

inspiration

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Watercolor; Harvest Flower by ~liz 

Days 317-321 The Legacy of Co-Workers

    For the event, Jim Wheaton, Jeff Kaplan & Mark Evans drove roundtrip from Columbus to Nashville in one day. Mike Greeley flew in from Columbia, South Carolina where he serves as a Vice President in the Lex Health System. 

   It was Mark's idea that they come for my birthday. We five bonded during our years as leaders at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus. We continued together when I became the first President of OhioHealth.

   Yes, I was CEO, but we became pals as did other team members. The fact they stay in touch encourages me that it was not just about me being the boss. But it has been twenty-two years since I left. Why would we want to be together again after so long?

   "It is because of how you made us feel," Mark told me. If that is so it was because it was easy. Each of them were peak performers & remain fantastic people. Together with the rest of our team we created a top ten hospital & a supremely successful ten-hospital health system.

   Our work dominates so much of our lives. Why not celebrate work relationships?

   Our colleagues change us. Other than my father, the man who most impacted me was the late Bruce Trumm. If Bruce had not recruited me to help lead the old Riverside Hospital in Toledo I would still be a trial attorney. 

    I often conjure Bruce, his wry humor, his sharp commands, his deep humanity. He was family & I visited him often after he suffered a stroke. I remember CNO Marian Hamm, attorney Frank Pandora, Sr. V.P. Steve Garlock, Dr. Nick Baird & so many other leaders along with thousands of direct caregivers each of whom changed the lives of others. One of my dearest friends is former Sr. V.P. Tracy Wimberly. 

   Honor your fellow caregivers. Love the role they played in your life & play a positive role in theirs even when, like family, sharp words are exchanged.   

   We rarely know our legacy. I have been lucky that many, including these four great men, have shared what our time together meant.   

   When you reach retirement the voices of fellow workers will ring in your ears. May that sound be a bell calling you to rich memories.

-Erie Chapman 

From left, Jim, Mike, Erie, Jeff & Mark 

Days 315-316 Essence

 Note: Reflection by Liz Sorensen Wessel: As we rode along the winding route towards home, emotions stirred in anticipation of gatherings with family and friends. The joy of seeing loved ones and the sorrow of missing those who are no longer here. The poignancy of life’s fleeting nature enhances our appreciation of how precious the gift.

Remembrances of our mothers wove its way into the conversation. As he spoke about his mom I knew we had moved into a sacred realm. I received the blessing of bearing witness to a deeply meaningful testimony. He spoke of the existential vortex one experiences with the death of their mom. Thoughts such as, “did I measure up in the eyes of my mother? Am I the person she hoped I would be?” All the memories we cherish and the accompanying wisdom that flows from self-examination.

 In our continual turning with the seasons of life, the extraneous begins to fall away. The faults we find in each other and in ourselves, the importance of who is right and who is wrong seem to lose power as pain and old hurts fade in forgiveness.

What is left is our essence; a brilliance that is always there but obscure from our awareness until we remember that what matters is our love for one another.

Liz Sorensen Wessel

Pencil drawing by ~liz

Days 310-314 - Everyday Confessions

  "Do not use the 'I' word unless you must," my wise mother taught. "It draws attention to yourself."

   She has followed that commandment across her long life. I have not done well. Today, I overlook her counsel once again. Confessions always start with "I." Confession is good for the soul.

   Indeed, the anonymous woman baring herself before a Catholic confessional symbolizes exposing our souls. It is in confession where we are our most naked.

   At ten, I realized that I could only see the world from my point of view. Self-centeredness can flow from this early understanding - the false notion that somehow we are more important. Arrogance churns in the backwash of this belief. 

   Arrogance (the opposite of humility) leads to one of my worst personality disorders. I suffer from chronic irritability & often inflict that on others.

   Imagine someone who writes a book called "Radical Loving Care" & counsels loving patience who then interrupts other people & becomes angry when he is interrupted. Classic hypocrisy.

   Aware of the problem & desperate to solve it, I have sought counseling, taken various medications, attended divinity school & gotten ordained. But, I have found only one person to whom I listen with loving care - a convicted killer. With those I love most I often default to my inborn irritability.

    Yesterday, I even tried an online robot psychologist (Woebot). Predictably, I became irritated with the simplistic approach the computer program takes & shut it down. 

    After twenty years of struggling I finally confess: I cannot solve this problem - nor can anyone else solve it for me.

   It always seemed reversible. It is not. The best I can do is moderate it.

   This thought triggered an epiphany. Today, the moment I accepted that I could not defeat this lifelong demon he retreated.

   The problem remains, of course, but I feel better taking the old, "illogical," but well trodden path of giving up, of doing that thing I preach, that alcoholics practice & that I have not: accept my flawed humanity & receive the grace that flows from surrender. 

   Why did I not see this sooner? Arrogance blocked my view. 

-Rev. Erie Chapman

Photograph: "Baring the Soul" - Erie Chapman, 2017

Days 308-309 The Space Within the Heart

Note: Reflection by Liz Sorensen Wessel

"Deep in our DNA we belong to the stars, the trees and the galaxies." ~ Ilia Delio

"The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars.  Fire and lightening and winds are there, and all that now is and all that is not. "
— The Upanishads sacred text in India 6000 years ago

We, a circle of five women came together to share, being with one another and opening to the Divine mystery of our lives. This extraordinary retreat experience was a pause from our routines as we unplugged from technology. 

Contemplation, silence, walking along the shore, breathing in the ocean air...breathing... sharing the state of our hearts without judgment, fixing or helping but rather being present with a deep-down kindness.

Listening, learning and integrating spiritual wisdom, expanding our awareness of our interconnectedness with all creation. Personal reflection, peacefulness and prayer and revelations within a safe space of mutual vulnerability and trust.

Grieving tears while recognizing all the good and blessings of Love we have received from our Creator amid expressions of gratitude and joy expanding out in a world of both/and rather than either/or; for we have been called to the more. 

Journeying forth with a renewed singularity of purpose to live a life grounded in Love.

"Deep within we long for unity because, at the most fundamental level, we are already one. We belong to one another because we have the same source of love; the love that flows through the trees is the same love that flows through my being. . . We are deeply connected in this flow of love, beginning on the level of nature where we are the closest of kin because the Earth is our mother. " -Ilia Delio

Art Images by ~liz