Journal of Sacred Work

Day 213 - Friday's Art - An Image of Nurturing

   What gardens will you water today with the nurturing love in your heart?

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Watering Can" Erie Chapman, 2016

Days 209-213 - A Vaccine for Racism?

[ https://vimeo.com/441148851/7cc3aa300b PLEASE WATCH THIS 2-minute VIDEO FIRST. It is a brilliant creation by Chris York's team at Baylor's Grapevine Hospital.] 

   Listen carefully, my fellow European-Americans, to the late John Lewis, "Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."

   The Journal's wonderful weekend essay by Liz Wessel included part of this quote. She also referenced James Baldwin, someone too few Americans know. "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced," Baldwin wrote. His context was racism. 

   Lewis spoke of everyone. I address white Americans because we are the ones that most need to listen, to face anew the searing truth of racial inequality caused by whites who fabricated the lie of superiority. 

   At dinner four years ago a new next door neighbor, Ginny, suddenly said to me, "Erie, black people are tearing us down."

   After that, it got even worse. Obviously, she did not know me. Aghast, I quickly got into some "good trouble." Although later I was chastised for arguing (a frequent criticism) consider the situation. Ginny told me her truth because she assumed I was part of her white conspiracy to demean minorities. If people who look like me do not speak up than I am tacitly encouraging her.  

   The minority of which to which I belong is that one percent of the over-privileged. When it comes to leadership I instantly lose my minority status. Whites, particularly white men, dominate too many leadership positions - including in health care. 

   Speaking up is not enough. As Baldwin suggests: Most white people deny they harbor racist feelings. Many (including the President, who claims to the "the least racist person in the world") imply there is no race problem.

   Would he trade his skin color for black or brown? Would you?

   Whether we are each more racist than we realize is a question being re-asked by millions as racial strife again grips our country. 

   Why is it that so many whites still fail to understand the phrase "Black Lives Matter"? That the slogan means "Black Lives Matter TOO."

   After four decades as a healthcare CEO a painful truth emerges. With rare exceptions (Baylor's Chris York, of course) white men do not get it! As a result, racism in hospitals remains unresolved. 

   Where are America's change agents? In board rooms? In doctor's dining rooms?

   Now, more than ever, American healthcare needs what we have never had, our own versions of James Baldwin & John Lewis & Martin Luther King. 

   As science seeks a vaccine for the COVID 19 a parallel crisis begs for a cure. American healthcare needs a vaccine for racism.

   We need leaders with passions for justice as big as their paychecks. The vaccine for racism is Love.

   And if you wonder what Love looks like, watch the brilliant video created by Chris York's team at Baylor Scott & White's Grapevine Hospital again.* 

   Remember Baldwin's words: "nothing can be changed until it is faced." Then "make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."

-Erie Chapman

I also created a YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icmZ8AfVOQQ

   

Days 207-208 Get In Some Good Trouble

I awoke early this morning with sleepy eyes and thoughts of John Lewis and how I might pay tribute to this great man. I searched Netflix to watch the film “John Lewis: Good Trouble.” Accidentally, I clicked on a related documentary called, “I am Not Your Negro.” However, I’ve decided that it was no accident. I was meant to watch this film and if you are reading this, perhaps you are too.

I learned something; my eyes widening as I awaken with new awareness. I've heard it said that the truth can set you free.  This gives me hope.

During the turmoil in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, Time magazine aptly placed James Baldwin on the May cover with this fitting description, "There is not another writer, who expresses with such poignancy and abrasiveness the dark realities of the racial ferment in North and South.” Baldwin was a spokesperson for the Civil Rights Movement and his legacy continues as a bold voice for truth as history repeats itself or will we choose a new reality?

Raoul Peck’s documentary, “I Am Not Your Negro” begins with a television interview of James Baldwin with host Dick Cavett in 1968, when Cavett asked, “Why aren’t Negroes optimistic, even though there are Negro mayors, there are Negroes in all of sports, there are Negroes in politics, they’re even accorded the ultimate accolade of being in television commercials now.” Baldwin responded, “It’s not a question of what happens to the Negro here, the black man here, that is a very vivid question for me, you know, but the real question is what’s going to happen to this country?

This film gives witness to the brutalities and fight against racism in our culture.  It examines America’s assumptions with racist stereotypes during the  segregation era. It provides a candid look at events of the Civil Rights Movement juxtaposed amid today’s devastating racial climate. 

The film concludes with Baldwin’s poignant declaration, "You cannot lynch me and keep me in ghettos without becoming something monstrous yourselves. And furthermore, you give me a terrifying advantage: you never had to look at me; I had to look at you. I know more about you than you know about me. Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

What remains relevant today are the hopes, dreams and aspirations for a better world where all people can live and flourish.  It is a fervent demand to  face ourselves as a nation, and as a people so that real change can occur; an emphatic call for redemption and the reclaiming of the soul of America.

"Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble." -John Lewis

Liz Sorensen Wessel

Days 202-208 - ...When all that is left of me is love...

In Liz Wessel's weekend posted a lovely poem by Shawna Lemay called "In Lieu of Flowers." In a follow-up comment she posted an even more gorgeous poem by Merritt Malloy.

Epitaph

“When I die
Give what’s left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give to them
What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.

Look for me
In the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live in your eyes
And not on your mind.

You can love me most
By letting
Hands touch hands
By letting
Bodies touch bodies
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.

Love doesn’t die,
People do.
So, when all that’s left of me
Is love,
Give me away.”

― Merrit Malloy

What better gift for our funeral than to have these words read on our behalf: So, when all that is left of me is love; give me away.

Thank you, Liz. This will surely be your epitaph & we are grateful for the continuing gift of your unique love.

-Erie Chapman

Photo of Ms. Malloy from Twitter

Days 200-201 An Ascending Angel

 

In times of grieving our words tend to ring hollow. When a person dies, it is hardest for those who are left behind. Yet, I imagine our loved ones would want us to be happy and go on living. Keeping this in mind, I wish to share these words, adapted from a poem called, “In Lieu of Flowers” by Shawna Lemay. This is what I imagine your loved one might wish to say to you.

Although I love flowers very much, I won’t see them now. So in lieu of flowers:  

Buy a book of poetry, sit outside with a cup of tea and read it out loud, by yourself or to someone, or silently.

Spend some time with a single flower. A rose maybe. Smell it, touch the petals.
Really look at it. 

Share a glass of wine with someone you love. Or, perhaps champagne and think of what Dom Perignon said when he first tasted the stuff: “Come quickly! I am tasting stars!”

Take out a paint set and lay down some colors. Listen to your favorite music. Sing.

Listen to birdsong, watch birds, little common sparrows, hummingbirds and seagulls too. Watch hawks soar upon high riding the wind.

 In lieu of flowers, walk amid the trees and watch the light falling ever so quietly. Eat an apple, a really nice big one. I hope it’s crisp. 

Have a long soak in the bathtub with candles, maybe some rose petals.
Sit on the front stoop and watch the clouds. Have a dish of strawberry ice cream in my name. 

If it’s winter, have a cup of hot chocolate outside for me. If it’s summer, a big glass of lemonade. 

If its autumn, collect some leaves and press them in a book you love. I’d like that. 
Sit and look out a window and write down what you see. Write down some other things too. 

In lieu of flowers, 
I would wish for you to flower. 
I would wish for you to blossom, to be beautiful.

And when all that is left of me is love; give me away…

 

Shared by Liz Soresnesen Wessel
Photo by Liz

Day 198-199 End of the Week Art Appreciation

This version of end-of-the-week art offers picture, poetry & voice - Art meant to enlighten your life as a caregiver.

Crossing Summer’s Creek

(To listen as well as read, click link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6k8rwcVqns

Comes now a sudden turn

Into soft surprise.

Some whisper in the forest

That draws my eye’s energy.

“Over there,” the oak leaves sigh,

“Crossover summer’s creek.”

As the grit & glass clear from eyes

Where they needed to be,

Where blood must be shed

By men like me who need

To fight before we can rest,

I crossover, kneel on sharp rock,

Tear my torn body through thorn

Bushes, stare down a copperhead.

“Raise your eyes,” the snake spits.

Before me a secret path gestures.

A curved shape sits in a meadow.

Peace. Arms open.

Her gentle smile. Her strength.

 

-Erie Chapman, 2020

Photo by Erie: "Climbing Into Summer" 2018

 

Days 195-199 - The Quiet Heart of Humility

   Everyone admires it. Few find it.

   Childhood's ears heard humility as simply, "not bragging." Then, ministers imply, "We are nothing."

   Adulthood hears tones that staccato less nihilism. They hymn, "You are a child of God & you are not God."

  Humility is essential to Peace. It appears each time we forgive, admit, "I was wrong," quiet the compulsion to claim credit (replacing that by celebrating that we are one.) And when we release the suffocating belief that we "own" things or people. 

  Andrew Murray explained it in a column quoted by Dr. Clay Stauffer:

   "Humility is perfect quietness of heart. ...It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to [God] in secret and be at peace as in a deep sea of calmness when all around is trouble."

   Humility runs against the grain of western thinking. It requires daily practices to weave it into living love. Thus easing closer to peace.

-Erie Chapman

photoart: "Atlantic Sunrise" - from "Peace Series, by Erie 2016 & 2020

   

Days 193-194 A Call to Unite: Message from His Holiness the Dalai Lama

As we experience discomfort in this time, let’s begin to dream of a new normal, a new normal that addresses the weaknesses and problems that were going unaddressed in the old normal. If we’re wise, we won’t go back; we’ll go forward. —Brian McLaren

In this time of serious crisis, we face threats to our health and sadness for the family and friends we have lost. Economic disruption is posing a major challenge to governments and undermining the ability of so many people to make a living.

It is during times like this that we must focus on what unites us as members of one human family. Accordingly, we need to reach out to each other with compassion. As human beings, we are all the same. We experience the same fears, the same hopes, the same uncertainties, yet we are also united by a desire for happiness. Our human capacity to reason and to see things realistically gives us the ability to transform hardship into opportunity.

This crisis and its consequences serve as a warning that only by coming together in a coordinated, global response, will we meet the unprecedented magnitude of the challenges we face. I pray we all heed ‘The Call to Unite’.

Dalai Lama
May 1, 2020

As a global society we are at such a critical crossroad. I feel as though we are being cracked open and our underbellies are exposed and vulnerable to reveal the best and worst of humanity. As difficult as it may be, with eyes wide open we must self-examine, acknowledge and respond to this call to unite. All of life is interdependent and we can not make it alone. We are at a tipping point. We need each other. The human spirit is resilient and together we can overcome whatever challenges befall us, but only if we open our hearts to the truth of who we are as One people, One earth and One human family.

We’re here for one thing, ultimately: to learn how to love, because God is love. Love is our origin, love is our ground, and love is our destiny.  ~James Finley

                                                                                                                     

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel

Days 188-191 - Changing Bitter Harvests To Blessings

   Farmers know that different crops ripen in different season. Fisherman know this idea too.

   What about your harvest in this season? Whatever your age you have endured hardship & plenty, sorrow & joy, disappointment & gratitude. And...?

   Farmers question quantity, quality, salability, what can be stored or shared. Underneath lie hard work & meaning. 

   We ask the same.

   What astounds is the manifold ways that two people with similar riches can celebrate or curse their yields. Rich seventy-year olds complain it is not enough. Others with small fractions of that feel grateful.    

   Frequently, when a career or relationship ends in betrayal the "victim" is traumatized & devalues their life. I have experienced both. What magnified my losses was that the other was so anxious to rush on to their next chapter that they failed to honor their scarred partner. Disrespect wounds Humanity.* 

   Two comments expose hurt, not truth: Demonization of the once-loved job or person or, "I don't care."

   "Victims" feel the frustration of the wronged & the bitterness of the humiliated. Thus, they lose not only job or spouse but, worse, they face a crisis of meaning. The question "All that commitment for nothing?" repeats itself.

   I often struggle to do what I recommend: Find worth in my commitments independently. It hurts to be fired unjustly. It hurts to be divorced & ignored.  It is hard to prioritize my ordination vows above my lawyer's training. 

  Still, I recommend to CEO's: Celebrate the departing. Show caring not indifference.

   Choosing love not fear means reviewing shared history with gratitude.    The same for both parties in broken relationships: Thoroughly honor history with something more than a flippant, "It's over but thanks," or the deadly, "I will always love you" (implying "But not enough to stay with you.") 

   So, instead of blocking memories grieve & celebrate. Thank your lucky stars for how they shined on you for awhile.

   If you can do that magic trick bitter harvests will become food that will bless the rest of your days. 

Erie Chapman

*This story is told searingly in "About Schmidt." After retirement, Jack Nicholson's character walks by a storage area where all his carefully kept files are being discarded. 

Photograph, "Southern Harvest" by erie, 2016

  

Days 186-187 Quickening Alive

 

Every person has inherent worth simply because they are human. This awareness keeps us focused on what matters most.

The story I am about to share involves caregivers, Diann Verdugo RN MSN Hospice Educator  and Julie Conway Hospice Volunteer and their loved ones.

Mr. C was a veteran who suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Hospice arranged for a trumpeter to visit Mr. C at home to play some of his favorite music. Suddenly, he awakened from his somnolence or as Oliver Sacks would say, he experienced, “A Quickening Alive.”  Not only did Mr. C become alert, he was animated as he kept company with some of the musical greats from a bygone era. During the event, Diann, who is passionate about her calling, put her photography talents to use and volunteered to take photos of Mr. C with his daughter, Julie to offer as a keepsake gift.

Julie, also Mr. C’s caregiver, was overwhelmed to reconnect with her father in such a profoundly meaningful way. It was such a beautiful, sacred time that left a lasting impression on Julie. In fact, so much so that Julie became a hospice volunteer after her father’s death.

Sometime later, Diann’s mother in law was admitted to hospice with end stage Alzheimer’s disease and the hospice volunteer was… you guessed it, Mr. C’s daughter, Julie. Although Mrs. V was confused, she had moments of clarity and she recounted stories about her life and family history. Julie, wrote down these memories and gifted Diann ’s family with these incredible recollections to treasure. 

The Hospice “We Are Veteran’s” program is designed to honor Vets for their service to our country. These ceremonies may include, a color guard in attendance, Chaplain Interviews with patients and families, and singing patriotic songs with the patient dressed in their service jacket and cap. All gather to listen to the Veteran’s stories and prayers are often shared.  Photos of the patients smiling, laughing and living a quality life provides a paradigm shift from the myth that hospice is only for the dying. 

Since then, this program has expanded for other hospice patients to share their story with the “Hear Me Now” program.  The session gives families a reason to gather and to celebrate. Perhaps it is the birth of a new baby, or an individual photo with each grandchild as family members express love. Diann shared, “These photos have a huge impact on families and create a deeply meaningful legacy gift that keeps on giving from one generation to the next.”

Recently, Diann and Julie reunited to record a Hear Me Now story together. Julie described Diann “As an angel sitting beside me” and with deep emotion Diann echoed the same description of Julie.

What a beautiful way to bring the sacredness of caregiving full circle.  Caregiving informs the unfolding mystery and mutuality in giving and receiving. For truly as writer, Henri Nouwen once shared, we are all wounded healers one to another.

Questions for Reflection:

• In what ways  does caring, protect and affirm our humanity?

• Patients may feel and experience an energy of healing in a way that transforms an ordinary interaction into a sacred encounter. Do you believe that in caregiving both the giver and receiver experience healing in the process?

Affirmation: We are the caretakers of stories. We highlight the many ways caregivers are ‘Quickening Alive” our promise to ease the way of those entrusted to our care.

Note: Link to the Hear Me Now Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/user-557823237

Liz Sorensen Wessel 

Artwork by ~liz

Day 187 - Friday's Featured Art!

As an experiment, we decided to add a new feature to the Journal of Sacred Work. Whether or not you love poetry we are offer, here, short poems for your enjoyment & enrichment. We hope you will support this effort.

Our choice to launch this initiative is a lovely poem by my cousin, Dr. Terry Chapman. Terry has been an enthusiastic & dedicated supporter of poetry most of his life. It turns out he is also good at writing it himself!

Turning West

Turning West and towards the wind,

My ship sails toward the treasure,

Its sails are set by my intent

and not by stormy measure.

Small and green, my little Jade,

A Bonsai by description.

But locked inside is nature’s might

by only God’s encryption.

Climbing, climbing, up the slope,

toward a higher vision;

When seen afar, we all are one,

And not in lost division!

My spirit longs for better times,

When all of us are one;

And none of us is lost at all

And none of us is none.

(c) Terry Chapman, 2017