Journal of Sacred Work

Days 242-244 Prayer for Peace

 

Be generous in prosperity,
and thankful in adversity.

 

Be fair in thy judgement,
and guarded in thy speech.

 

Be a lamp unto those who walk in darkness,
and a home to the stranger.

 

Be eyes to the blind,
and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring.

 

Be a breath of life to the body of humankind,
a dew to the soil of the human heart,
and a fruit upon the tree of humility.

 

Baha’i Prayer

 

 

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Artwork by ~liz

Days 238-242 - Why Time Does Not Go Fast

The Time Trick

 “It all went so fast,” fools say at the end forgetting,

as fools do,

how the math class minute hand glued his finger to the clock face,

the duration of nausea,

the length of the drive across the Mojave Desert after the air conditioning broke,

the number of years until retirement,

the wait for love to appear,

the quicksand after it vanished.

 

“It all went so fast,” fools say,

eyes ever-fixed on the clock,

instead of the moment,

crushing decades into one sentence. 

   As the kind of fool that fools himself I also marvel at Times's  speed as seen through the retro-scope. But, why are we so surprised? The rear view mirror reveals years compressed into seconds because we are not reliving all those moments in "real" time.

   The handless clock in the picture has been hanging on my gallery wall for eight years. Still, every so often my eyes absent-mindedly search her face for an answer she cannot give me - the time.

   Instead, she reminds me to look not to look at her but at the present.

-Erie Chapman

Photoart - "Eternity's Clock" by Erie, 2016 & 19

Days 236-237 Never Forgotten

 

WHERE MANY RIVERS MEET

All the water below me came from above.
All the clouds living in the mountains 
gave it to the rivers, 
who gave it to the sea, which was their dying.

And so I float on cloud become water, 
central sea surrounded by white mountains, 
the water salt, once fresh, 
cloud fall and stream rush, tree roots and tide bank, 
leading to the rivers’ mouths 
and the mouths of the rivers sing into the sea, 
the stories buried in the mountains 
give out into the sea 
and the sea remembers 
and sings back, 
from the depths, 
where nothing is forgotten.

-- David Whyte

From "River Flow: New & Selected Poems"
©1990 David Whyte & Many Rivers Press

 

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Watercolor by~liz

Days 232-236 - A Life-Changing Question

   The question is easy. I wrote it on a large piece of folded art paper a few weeks ago. 

   "What new life experience will you pursue today?"

  The challenge comes with your answer. Why try something new?

   Consider the typical comment of a traveler after a two-day trip: "I feel like I've been gone a week."

   Routines dominate. Repetition melts time. Trying something new not only enriches time, it extends it. 

   Protocols designed to save minutes can squander days & turn golden opportunities into lead.

   A dislike of physical travel causes me to cultivate spiritual journeys. Today I walked one with poet Kobayashi Issa down a path paved with thirteen words.

   In a few seconds I traveled a light year. And the world was a new place.  

"In this world
we walk on the roof of hell,
gazing at flowers."

 

   The bottom left corner of my surrealist image includes a detail from Hieronymus Bosch's hell. Each character seeks to penetrate hell's "roof" -  to climb into the light.

 

   Might you illuminate the shadows in another's life today & paint light into both your hearts?

   -Erie Chapman

P.S. "Ascending to Joy" - Erie Chapman, 2018

Days 230-231 Turning Our Time on Earth into Gold

Earth into Gold

O You who change earth into gold.
And out of other earth made the father of humankind,
Change my mistakes and forgetfulness into knowledge
Jalil al-Din Rumi (1207-1273, Persia)

It is easy it is to find fault with others, to focus on their imperfections rather than our own. Especially, when under duress whether at work or at home, we may be tempted to project our stress, vulnerabilities or feelings of inadequacy by shifting a critical eye on others.

Our perceptions are carved into the landscape of our minds. Conditioned responses become ingrained and color our reality in distorted patterns. Yet, as we gain increasing self-awareness about how the mind works, we can choose a new response.

Personally, this past week I was on a wave of high intensity days amid some difficult moments, as well as a few deeply meaningful ones. In an encounter,  I perceived a few comments someone made as insensitive, mistrustful and attacking. I felt my defenses rise. Afterwards, I felt frustrated with a strong desire to express disparaging remarks about that person but I resisted the urge.
  
Foremost, I wanted to avoid feeding the beast of negativity to take on a life of its own  or slip into victimhood. Instead, I chose to tend to my own garden and let the other person take care of their own.

How easy our motivations can change in a heated moment from collaborative to defensive, to my way, not yours, or the struggle of I’m right and your wrong. That’s when I know the ego is at play.

When I forget myself and let an unkind remark slip, I find myself immediately regretting my transgression no matter how small. Like a boomerang my words come back to strike me too.

Nature is a great teacher. In stillness, we can return home to the wind song rustling trees, to the quiet blessing of a simple invisible presence that is just beyond the incessant chatter that can flood our minds.

Tress are ancient beings that stand firmly rooted in earth and branch out in solidarity with all of life. Trees communicate in streaming pathways underground and up into the biosphere, sending helpful encoded messages of life giving support that travels far and wide in the vast web of life.  

 We can choose to let go of reactivity, to become still, to be in solidarity with life and look beyond imperfections to see the good & the best in others and in ourselves, turning our time on earth into gold.

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Tree photos by ~liz, taken  in the rain forest of WA, 2019

Days 224-229 - The Rise & Fall & Rise of Hope

 Ten beings, oriented to a different reality, roamed the recreation area of a Mental Health center I visited years ago. It is impossible to forget one of them.

   He sat at a piano playing the same note repeatedly. After an hour touring & meeting staff I returned to the main area. Yes, the same man was playing the same note.

   "How long does he do that?" I asked John, a caregiver. 

   "All day ever day," he said with a compassionate smile.

   "Do you ever want to give up?" I asked.

   "Yes. My hope rises & falls," he answered, "but every day is hard for my piano man. Helping him & others helps me."

   Without Hope's waters the human soul (& caregivers that nurture it) dies of thirst. 

   For one whose spirit soars & dives every day Wordsworth's words (learned in high school) often haunt me:

"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away...

...might I...
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn...[?]"

   When "the world is too much for us" John's kindness shines. 

-Erie Chapman

Photoart - "Melancholy Rests By Hope's Stream" - Erie Chapman 2017,2019

Days 222-223 Enlightened Caregiving!

Note: Special guest reflection offered by Terry Chapman: I’m sure you’ve seen the short video that urges you, at the time of an airplane oxygen problem, to put on your mask first—then help your child or other needy person.  This makes good sense, since to help the other you must first help yourself! I call this enlightened caregiving.

Caregiving creates heavy stress for the caregiver.  When you push yourself to continue on, you will deplete your emotional and physical reserves and fail to help those who depend on you.  But what should you do?  Take good care of yourself always. Help yourself first!

Are you, the caregiver, in good mental and physical health?  Do you watch your diet and exercise regularly?  Do you plan quiet time to rekindle your spirits and psyche?  Are your social needs being met?  Do you have those to help meet your needs on a regular basis?  If your answer is no to any of these questions, you are in danger of failing in your caregiving.

My brother Ronnie who was deaf, autistic, and unable to speak lived in sheltered living and I paid him many visits each year, driving from Worcester, MA to Maryland.  I discovered that if I stayed over an hour with Ronnie, my ability to connect with him failed. His constant requests to explain the meaning of Popular Mechanics machine pictures in a stack of magazines I brought him each time, exhausted me and interfered with us having a good visit. Shortening the time, we spent together, resulted in more pleasure for both of us.  Do you plan time limits to your caregiving visits or activities? Taking good care of yourself is the first step to enlightened caregiving that will help your loved ones and you!

-Terry Chapman

Days 217-221 - The Shallow End of the Pool

"So much of beauty, so much of what propels our pursuit of truth, stems from the invisible connections...between the interior world of each pioneer and the mark they leave on the cave walls of culture..." Maria Popova, Figuring

   The three-year-old boy shivering beside the pool. "Jump," his dad calls out. "Why?" the little boy thinks. "The shallow end of the pool is so much safer." 

   In the winter of 1889, a 23-year old governess named Maria Sklodowska stands at the entrance to a chemical laboratory at the Museum of Industry and Agriculture near Warsaw. She has chosen a career in chemistry & physics in a country (& a world) where men disdained & often blocked women from becoming scientists.

   Across the next decades, Sklodowska's courage, her willingness to dive into the deep end of the pool, enabled her to make discoveries so important that she was twice awarded the Nobel Prize (the only person to win in two different areas.)

   Anyone receiving radiation therapy for cancer, or benefiting in other ways from radiation, may thank Sklodowska (known later as Marie Curie) for surrendering comfort to benefit humankind. Her Radical Loving Care ended in her death from radiation exposure.

   Every pioneer trades safety for greater goals. A fraction succeed. Even the successful are often anonymous. And Curie is an inspiration to women all well as humankind.

   We owe all our gratitude for improving the quality of our lives as well as for sometimes saving them. 

   As for the boy by the pool, he represents millions of kids who choose the leap & learn to swim on their own. I was lucky to have a dad who caught me & who later taught me that success requires something beyond courage - persistence. 

-Erie Chapman, III

Snapshot of Erie Chapman, III by Erie Chapman, Jr. 

   

Days 215-216 A Holy Chalice

When I think of peace I think of a world where people are no longer brutalized on account of such accidents such as birth as sex, race religion, or nationality.

For me, peace is a way of structuring human relationships where daily acts of kindness and caring are tangibly rewarded.

It is a way of thinking, feeling, and acting where our essential interconnection with one another are truly honored.

I pray for a world where we live in partnership rather than domination;

where “mans” conquest of nature” is recognized as suicidal and sacrilegious;

where power is no longer equated with the blade, but with the holy chalice;

the ancient symbol of the power to give, nurture, enhance life.

And I not only pray but I actively work, for the day when it will be so.

~Riane Eisler

If you have 3 minutes and would like to learn more about Riane Eisler go to  https://rianeeisler.com/

and watch the powerful 3 min video called The Chalice and The Blade and what happened to her and her family in early life. She began to ask the question does life have to be this way when humanity has so much capacity for compassion.

Offered by Liz Sorensen Wessel  
Pencil Drawing by ~liz