Journal of Sacred Work

Days 334-335 The Hope of Advent

Note: This reflection is from several writings, over the years, on Advent by Sister Joan Chittister

        Dec 1^st heralds the beginning of the Advent season, and is described as a “highly spiritual time as we prepare to birth the Christ (Love) into our lives” (Chittister). Although, Advent is traditionally a Christian custom, regardless of a faith or not, when viewed through the lens of an all-inclusive Love; all are welcome.

         Joan draws us in to explore the deeper meaning of this beautiful season.  She explains, “Advent, teaches us to wait for what is beyond the obvious. To look for God (Love) in all those places we have, until now, ignored.”

        “It is waiting that attunes us to the invisible in a highly material world. The function of Advent is to remind us of what we’re waiting for as we go through life, too busy with things that do not matter, to remember the things that do” (Chittister).  In this age of technology and speed I feel the pull to be still and listen for guidance.

        Joan elaborates, “Waiting — that cold, dry period of life when nothing seems to be enough and something else beckons within us — is the grace that Advent comes to bring.  It stands before us, within us, pointing to the star for which, the wise ones from the East are only icons of ourselves.”

        Joan reminds us that, “The first week of Advent calls us to hope in the promise that God (Love) is calling us to greater things and will be with us as we live them.”  Living in a world with so much suffering one can't help but realize, “ Hope is not for easy times. Hope comes only when hope is gone, when we are fainting from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon our worlds. Then hope and only hope reigns supreme. Then we see the works of a God who sends compassion through strangers. Then we go color blind where people are concerned and see Jesus (Love) where Jesus (Love) has always been—in the eyes of the other who waits to see that same Jesus (Love) in our own.”  For Love is the source of our being. To gaze into the eyes of another and become visible to yourself; this is the miracle of Love.

         "Advent asks the question, what is it for which you are spending your life?  What is the star you are following now?  And where is that star in its present radiance in your life leading you?  Is it a place that is really comprehensive enough to equal the breadth of the human soul?" (Chittister).

Excerpts from various Advent reflections by Sister Joan Chittister of the Benedictine Order, Erie PA

Compiled and edited by Liz Sorensen Wessel
"Angel of Hope" drawing by ~liz

Days 228-232 - Vibrations of Love & Fear

   Some believe that all life exists as vibrations; that the bodies we occupy are waves of energy we perceive as human forms. 

   Fear's energy visits all animals. I imagine it as traveling the air in tight, frenzied vibrations that shock through us.

 Love visits humans in more refined ways. Perhaps as slow, sweeping arcs of light that warm & thrill our being & infuse us with the best life can offer as, for me, the sweet smile of my five-year-old granddaughter.  

   Why is it that some of us seem to have been born afraid while others (symbolized by Jesus) are born into such a strong light that the rest of us are illuminated?

   How did our mystery begin? 

The String

You cannot recall

the most important place you have been.

The vibration of your father’s entry,

how he left you

tucked beneath your mother’s heart,

you & her communing

like kids talking tin-can-to-tin-can

then stopping to ask:

“Did I hear you through the string

or was it just that you were near?”

 

Girls understand the string.

Boys never get over the breaking of it.

 

-Erie Chapman

 

 

Days 326-327 If Only...

If only we try to live sincerely, it will go well with us,

even though we are certain to experience real sorrow, and

great disappointments, and will also probably commit great

faults and do wrong things. But it certainly is true that

it is better to be high-spirited – even though one makes

more mistakes – than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent.

It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true

strength; and whosoever loves much performs much, and can

accomplish much; and what is done in love, is well done.

 

Vincent van Gogh

Dear Theo: The Autobiography of

 

Shared by Liz Wessel

Van Gogh "Cypresses" Painting, Metropolitan Museum of Art website 

 

 

Days 322-326 - The Rainbow Romantic

   The last line of Norman Cousins' speech in 1994 was, "We are so much stronger than we think we are." Its echo fills my heart. It mattered because the speaker overcame a terminal diagnosis. His successful survival strategy? Laughter. 

   Viktor Frankl, founder of "meaning therapy," would credit a will to live. 

   Thriving requires Hope. Hope needs Meaning. Love brings Healing.

   Without Hope, Love is Robin's egg fragile.

   We learn Love's strength under duress. Some 911 survivors reasoned that God had betrayed them. There is no such God.

   When I sail with Reason he explains the sea but not why she is beautiful. God's Love is perfectly ineffable. Her ship cannot be sunk nor her light extinguished. 

   If God is perfect, why should we, aboard our flaw-filled craft, even try? Humanity needs humility & a range of often tiresome practices to nurture the Love within.

   As a a disciple of the Romance god I am vulnerable to his vagaries. Romance is Love's god of idealization. He sets expectations high & convinces us they are achievable.

   He delivers examples: "Here is the job you always wanted," he says.

   We capture it. Inevitably, Reality riddles our "perfect" job with holes. 

   If our work is just a job Disappointment shoves Hope aside. If our work is a calling Hope's energy will heal the holes.

   The "called" show impossible persistence: A paralyzed FDR pursing the Presidency. Mother Teresa serving the poorest of the poor. Martin Luther King enduring imprisonment to win freedom.

   And you who live your Calling can deliver loving care to a patient that throws bedpans & insults when you enter the room. Compassion informs your hurt heart & enables you to return the next day.

   Love's steady light, not Romance's shifting illumination, supports our ship in storms &, importantly, when becalmed.

   Romantics, whether in career or art or in love, seek Adventure's peculiar thrills & attendant risks. The most life-threatening storms strike when some force severs a romantic's connection to his calling or to his love. 

   That is why lovers that rely solely on Romance are shocked when his sustaining winds fail & their ship wanders aimlessly. They cannot imagine why those winds that filled their sails faded & assume they will never return.

   Abandoned & smothered in gray, the rainbow romantic screams for those swirls of color. If not found they seek to off-load their pain. Instead of drawing strength from Love they curse their boat & search for a new one.

   But no voyage can succeed without Love's guidance. That is why Shakespeare's genius is as practical as it is romantic: "...Love is not love/ Which alters when it alteration finds."

  Those who dwell deeply Love's heart of hearts discovers that her greatest gift is not found in rainbows but in the white light that mysteriously holds all colors. Inside that secret, sacred embrace they learn they are stronger than they think they are. 

Everything.

-Erie Chapman

Photograph - "Rainbow Sailing" by Erie

Here is Rilke (abridged):

A god has the power. But can a man
wring the same from a slender lyre?
...no temple of Apollo
stands where two hearts cross.

Song, as you teach it, is not desire,
...Song is existence. Easy for a god.
But what of us? When will he

the earth and the stars towards us?
It's not, young man, when you're in love
...--learn

To forget what you once sang. That is fleeting.
True singing is a different kind of breath.
A breath that aims nowhere. A wind.

[Everything]

  

   

Days 320-321 Little Glimmers

 

A woman with a scarf over her head hoists her six year old up onto the first step of the school bus. “Good-bye,” she says.

A father on the phone with his freshman son has just finished bawling him out for this poor grades. There is mostly silence at the other end of the line. “Well, good-bye,” the father says.

When the girl at the airport hears the announcement that her plane is starting to board, she turns to the boy who is seeing her off, “I guess this is good-bye,” she says.

The noise of the traffic almost drowns out the sound of the word, but the shape of it lingers on the old man’s lips. He tries to look vigorous and resourceful as he holds out his hand to the other old man. “Good-bye.” This time they say it so nearly in unison that it makes them both smile.

It was a long while ago that the words God be with you disappeared into the word good-bye, but every now and again some trace of them still glimmers through.                         

  ~Frederick Buechner

I recall my father in law once saying to me, "life is a series of hellos and goodbyes." It was one of those philosophical or more meaningful moments and his words still echo in my mind from time to time. I think of Maya Angelou who had shared how she carried with her all of the people she had ever known and loved, those who were loving and kind. They gave her strength to get up and to speak her truth so courageously, powerfully and poetically.

I am reminded of the terrible wounding that was inflicted upon her and how she was able move through the hurt of that experience in a way that transformed her life; from darkness to Light. I personally know many people whose lives have been struck with a painful burden. At the time the situation seemed bleak and there was no light in sight. Yet, as they moved through the dark night of the soul, on the other end was a beautiful gifting they could never have imagined. 

I am in awe of the resilience of the human spirit, of hope, and the insatiable desire to keep growing, learning and moving forward towards light. It is an innate, inexplicable quality in all of life. 

I tend to hold on too tightly at times, to what I know, to what seems steady and consistent or as Joni Mitchell sings so lyrically, "as constant as the northern star." Yet, as I reflect back on the seasons of my life, I am keenly aware of how our lives are continually turning, changing, evolving in an ever-expanding field of Light. We only need open our hearts to receive this ever-present gift.

Question for reflection: What little glimmers shine through you, a moment etching itself into your heart and the hearts of others who inform your life?

 

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Photo by taken by my dad, age 3

Days 315-319 - Caring for the "Crazy" - The Challenge of "A Fine Madness"

...For that fine madness still he did retain,/ Which rightly should possess a poet's brain. - Michael Drayton

   Imagine a Christmas without Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker," the ballet that has brought joy to millions since 1892.

   Imagine growing up never knowing American literature's finest novel: Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

   What if your eyes had never seen Van Gogh's "Starry Night"? 

   Without one genius our ears would never know "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better), composed by the legendary Irving Berlin. 

   A single soul named Michelangelo transformed the bare ceiling of the Sistine Chapel into a masterpiece.

   What a loss it would have been if there had never been an Emily Dickinson. 

   Each of these giants was labeled "crazy." Their mood swings often inflicted misery on others. It was the price of their kind of genius.  

   Today psychiatrists would diagnosis them with what the public loosely calls Bipolar Disorder. Caregivers understand that diagnoses spans a wide spectrum from Bipolar Type I at one end to Depression, a unipolar illness, at the other. 

   The illness is not limited to artists. The often energetic Abe Lincoln suffered profound bouts of depression. The mood swings of the legendary Steve Jobs made him a difficult boss.

   It is the unique energy in the positive phase of mania that can open the door to the chambers of magic. There, the disciplined may create wonders & we owe them our gratitude & understanding.

   The saying is that "not all artists are bipolar but most bipolar people are artists." 

   A few years back this illness became personal. My unusual energy had caused some to label me a "Renaissance Man." I had always wondered why I could do many disparate things at once: host an Emmy-Award winning national T.V. show while founding & running a multi-billion dollar, multi-hospital system.

   How could I attend Vanderbilt Divinity School full time while running a second hospital system full-time, then compose music, create award-winning documentaries, write the best-selling Radical Loving Care, write poetry & create photo-art?

   Strangest of all, why did I secretly suffer dark days & display irritability inconsistent with my loving care beliefs? After all, wasn't I "successful?"

   In 2008, a psychiatrist took only fifteen minutes to discover the answer. I had Bipolar Type II -  a version that enables creativity at the hypomanic level but generates mood swings.

   Of course, that might be tolerable if I was a genius. Instead, I am not multi-talented, just multi-interested. 

   Treatment helps. Understanding & appreciation help. Ever since a psychologist told me that I had an "artist's temperament" I have thrown myself even more completely into my artwork. 

   A few month ago, I asked my son, a family historian, who he thought might have been the oddest of our ancestors. "You," he said instantly. 

   I felt complimented.

   We owe deep gratitude to those who care for the "crazy." It is taxing, often confusing & can be as depressing as the disease itself.

   Thank you, mental health caregivers.

-Erie Chapman  

Photograph by Erie

Days 313-314 The Wonder in Everyday

Note: Guest Reflection by Terry Chapman PhD

I’m sure you’ve seen the video of a jet plane in trouble as the oxygen masks drop to the terrified passengers below? Giving yourself oxygen first before giving it to kids or other needy folks is plain common sense:  you will not be able to help others if you fail to help yourself first!  You will better face caregiving challenges over a longer lifetime if you follow one
simple but challenging rule. Remember to eat reasonably, take quiet time, exercise regularly, and find wonder in your everyday round of activities to enliven your spirit! What do I mean by wonder?

Wonder can be found when you leave your easy chair and head outside to indulge yourself in such simple pleasures as noting the changing leaf colorations as you walk around your neighborhood, pausing to say hello to anyone you pass. Take a sustained deep breath; is the air moist or dry? Can you smell any wood smells? Do you hear any bird calls or songs? Are you thankful for all God has given you? As you walk, create a mental bucket list of those things you have always wanted to do. Let yourself imagine the joy you will feel in pursuing each of these ideas.  How about taking that river cruise you’ve always dreamed of? Or maybe take that gardening or Spanish class you have thought about for years?

My current list includes returning to my home city of Washington, D.C. to leisurely take in all its treasures! Also traveling to the Virginia Peninsula to visit civil war sites between Richmond and Norfolk; breaking 90 in golf several more times; catching a 20” Brown Trout on a self-made fly; and on it goes. What does your list look like? Revise it often and make it your quest.

Now I realize you might say, “But I can’t stop caring for my loved ones or my patients, or clients, or good friends, or church or lodge or fraternity or community agency.”  But you’ll never fulfill those primary caregiver goals unless your physical, mental, and spiritual health  sustains you through  your travails and challenges. Living a highly productive caring and satisfying life is only achieved by balancing and juggling your care of others with a solid dose of self caring behaviors!  

- By Terry Chapman

Days 308-312 - How Strong, How Fragile

Days 306-307 Reflections on Being An Artist

"A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feelings through words.
This may sound easy. It isn’t."

"A lot of people think or believe or know they feel — but that’s thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. And poetry is feeling — not knowing or believing or thinking."

"Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself." ~Laura Riding

Love is a place

love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places

yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skillfully curled)
all worlds.

His poems were his way
of saying YES.

YES to the heart
and the roundness of the moon,
to birds, elephants, trees,
and everything he loved.

YES to spring, too
which always brought him back
to childhood, when the first
sign of his favorite season
was the whistling arrival
of the balloon man.

ee cummings

Cummings considers what ordains that hypothetical peasant’s painting capital-A Art:

"It is Art because it is alive. It proves that, if you and I are to create at all, we must create with today and let all the Art schools and Medicis in the universe go hang themselves with yesterday’s rope. It teaches us that we have made a profound error in trying to learn Art, since..."

“Whatever Art stands for is whatever cannot be learned. Indeed, the Artist is no other than he who unlearns what he has learned, in order to know himself; and the agony of the Artist, far from being the result of the world’s failure to discover and appreciate him, arises from his own personal struggle to discover, to appreciate and finally to express himself.”

Dedicated to Erie Chapman in honor of you on this your birthday week!

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel

Photo Collage by ~liz