Journal of Sacred Work

The Audition - Days 312-316

   Invited to photograph dancers at an audition, I found myself judging the performers even though I was not the casting director.

    As each hopeful awaited their music cue some looked nervous. Auditions suggest judging & judging raises that awful specter called Rejection. If we were always our best selves, no practice would be needed. If we truly trusted our God within it would be nice, but not necessary, to have others' approval. 

   Auditioning is innate. Does not an infant begin "performing" the moment they discover behaviors that serve them? Smiling done for approval signals that auditioning has begun. 

   Every job I wanted required an audition before I was "cast." Dating is an audition process. Think of the tryouts you went through to become a professional caregiver? To live successfully in society we routinely pursue one thing: acceptance. Approval from others of our okay-ness.

   Early in my hospital leadership I visited a doctor who had become a patient. He was lying in bed wearing scrubs. 

   "Hey, I don't want to look like a patient," he told me with a chuckle.

   The doctor was auditioning because he knew what we know: A patient gown is demeaning. Maybe his doctor costume would protect him.

   It was an early signal that what patients & caregivers need from leaders is an environment where both were honored. What an uphill campaign! 

   We are told, "You don't need to 'perform.' I care for you as you are." 

   But life is flooded with judgments. Depression's onset in the late 1990s taught that gloominess is off-putting. I had to pretend "normal" or find myself alone. 

   Naturally, discernment & evaluation are necessary disciplines. What I love about the God of my understanding is that Love is patient, kind & forgiving. Does realizing that mean I can stop auditioning?

-Erie Chapman

Photograph: "The Audition" Erie Chapman, 2022   

Days 310-311 Every Loving Thought Is True

“If every single person who has loved you in your lifetime were to light up on a map, it would create the most glittering beautiful network you could imagine. Throw in strangers you’ve been kind to, the people you’ve made laugh, or inspired along the way and that star-bright network of you would be an impressive sight to behold. You’re so much more that you think you are. You have done so much more that you realize. You’re trailing a bright pathway that you don’t even know about. What a thing, what a thing indeed.” Donna Ashworth

This brief but powerful passage by Donna Ashworth invites us to pause and reflect on our experiences and the meaningful ways in which we connect throughout our life journey. I saved this quote a while ago, and recently stumbled upon it while looking for something else. As I re-read her penned words, so many gorgeous images arose.  However, I was on a mission and continued my quest to find that something else, and I made a mental note to revisit it later.

Those transformative images continued to swirl in my mind's eye and I thought to share them with you but when I returned to my archives, I searched high and low, all for naught. Oh, the foibles of being human! Does that ever happen to you? Determined, I was not giving up and I spent an inordinate amount of time surfing the Internet. Wonder of all wonders, even with my hazy recollection and an author’s misspelled name, I finally discovered it again.

Hmm…but it appears I’ve digressed. Just imagine, there are so many points of light, of love and connection throughout our lives that continue to expand out across our universe lighting up the night sky! This is the infinite power of Love.

So, on a day when that internal critical voice is echoing in our head we can acknowledge our difficult emotions, allowing them and offering our kind presence, and then with curiosity, ask what does it need and lovingly respond (RAIN Tara Brach teachings) as we remind ourselves of the vast far-reaching impact of our every loving thought and gesture.

With love and gratitude for all that is, for the darkness that holds the light, for the Divine Light that is in each of us and helps to guide our way, for the beauty and heartache that manifests in living, for the wounds that teach amidst a love that binds and heals, and for impermanence that awakens us to what really matters in our lives.
.
Liz Sorensen Wessel

Ashworth’s quote is From ‘I wish i knew’: https://amzn.to/3JVMJlZ

Carving "Immortality" - Days 305-309

 At 9 (2 years younger than snapshot) I picked up my pocket knife and headed out to immortalize myself. Elyria's Black River fell over a cliff behind my grandparents house. I walked down to a spot where it rushed past towering red oaks & around a limestone bolder. 

  The world populations was two billion. The bolder offered eternal distinction. It would be hard work to make my mark with a jack knife but a small price for permanence. 

  Two hours later, there it was: "Chip 1952." My blade & I were too worn down to write my last name. But I had left enough evidence for archeologists to discover, memorialize & rope off for public view Erie Degrasse "Chip" Chapman, III's ancient carving. 

   My child's eyes had not drunk in the warning in Ecclesiastes, "Vanity of vanities. All is vanity." By the time I did read it I was already life-deep in the romantic search for the golden chalice &, ridiculously, have not stopped.  

   How could I know that only God's love is eternal. Romance is a season. Our markings fade. 

   Every cemetery offers literal proof of Ego's success in nudging even the most humble to etch stone. Analogies abound. They teach us what every Thanksgiving tries to reinforce. That gratitude for what we have now matters more than striving for what might be. 

   Shortly before before passing, my dear dad typed his autobiography. Since no resume captured how we loved him & he lacked Twain's gifts, his four children, sadly, ignored it. With rare exceptions, autobiographies please writers more than readers who wisely give themselves the chance to savor, gratefully, their recollections.

   Two & a half thousand years ago Pericles warned us, “What you leave behind is not...engraved in stone...woven into the lives of others.”    

   Is not it fortunate that Love cares nothing for our names but only hopes we help others?  

   The world now struggles to support 8 billion. Every caregiver helps thousands. Too many others suffer & die alone. 

   Legacies live better in stories than on stone. One winter before World War I, dad almost drowned riding ice cakes down the same Black River on whose banks I sat carving forty years later. Like George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life" my dad helped others by living love; through the YMCA, his family & thousands who never knew his name but are better because he survived that icy river. 

-Erie Chapman

Snapshot - Chip at 11 by Dad

Thanks Giving: Days 303-304

As we witness the changing of the season,
The leaves turning from green to gold,
The crisp air and beauty surrounding
We pause in recognition of Indigenous People,
The original caretakers of this land

We wish to acknowledge that the land on which we live, and work is the unceded territory of many indigenous tribes who made their homes here. We wish to honor and recognize this painful legacy of occupation and acknowledge those descendants who live among us.

May they feel loved, honored, and celebrated.
May we find reconciliation and wholeness
As we learn to lift one another up,
May we walk together,
Restoring peace with the land.

“May your life be like a wildflower, growing freely in the beauty and joy of each day” (Native American Proverb)

We Give Thanks 

We give thanks to our God.
for all the earth and all creation.
That are wonderfully made
and held dear in the heart of our God.

We give thanks for our friends
and for our families.
For those we love, 
those who love us
and for those without love, 
because we can love them. 

We give thanks for the food we eat
and for the ability to feed those without food.
We give thanks for our life:
that we have it;
that it goes beyond our death. 

We give thanks for our freedoms
and the freedom to choose our own attitude
no matter what our circumstances.

 We are thankful for our health
and pray for those without health
that they might be strong
in mind and soul if not in body,
and we pray that they
might share their strength of spirit with us
as we share our strength of body with them. 

We give thanks for the ability to serve
and to reap the benefits of our service.
for all good things,
We give You thanks, oh God.

~Anonymous

I give thanks for the many ways you bless my life. Blessings to you and your family!
 HappyThanksgiving, soon to be!

 

Note: If your heart so calls to you, there are scores of wonderful Native-led foundations and organizations that you can donate funds to over the Thanksgiving break, including IllumiNative, Indian Country Media Network and First Peoples Fund

 

Liz Wessel
Photo by Chrissy Maio
Land Acknowledgement -Adapted by Rosanne Ponzetti

Loving the Afterglow - Days 298-302

   Sunset and retirement share a legacy: Both have an afterglow. 

   Note Dorothea Lange's observation,  "The camera is an instrument that helps us see without a camera."As a lifelong photographer (photographer means "light writer") I have always practiced this including making so many images of sunsets it is amazing my eyes still work. 

   Those who think this way attend more to afterglows than to moments the sun's crown vanishes. Once again, the sun nurturing path teaches: Our careers offer one way to shine our best gifts on others.

   "Weather" stalks every career. Some let clouds shade their entire work lives. They spend countless moments checking the hours until "quitting time?" Later, the same folks start counting the years until retirement.

   One of the mainstays of Radical Loving Care® is that any work, must be seen as a calling. Repetition & fatigue cloud that.

   God calls with a whisper not a shout. Listen & watch the breeze part those clouds. 

   As for retirement's afterglow, people like me always preach what we are trying to practice. Am I still chasing the sun when nighttime is nigh?

   Some reasons I never say, "I'm retired." The working marginalize the non-working. I continue multiple careers: film art, philanthropy & mentoring. I am not done. 

   The difference from my 40+ "sunshine years" of salaried work is scheduling freedom. But this is a mixed blessing for. Try saying, "I used to be a nurse."

   Yet, which light is more gorgeous, "Midday or sunset?" Gradually, I have come to love the afterglow. 

-Erie Chapman

Photograph: Erie Chapman: "Sunset Florida 2016"  

What is in a Blessing? Days: 296-297

To receive or bestow a blessing is a precious gift. Blessings are beautiful companions as we journey through life, and at various thresholds to herald us through to the next stage of our journey. Blessings encourage and strengthen us in times of change and transition, in celebratory occasions and in times of loss.

Blessings invite us to pause, recognize, acknowledge and express our appreciation, gratitude and love. They invite us into a sacred realm, and into community with one another. Blessings are synonymous with consecrations, dedications, benedictions, and sanctifications. Blessings are especially important in  our lives, some are chosen, others situations can be outside our control, and may stun us, throwing us off solid ground. Regardless, as we move forward, we inevitably must leave something behind and greet something new.  Honoring these significant times in our lives is vital to our well being and that of others.

Reverend Robert Brumet offers the following wisdom, “Certainly, there is much that is good and true contained within our social customs, yet often our conventional wisdom contains only half-truths. Good as it is that we celebrate beginnings, endings also need to be honored and even celebrated. We can truly experience a new beginning only when we have fully recognized the ending that preceded it. Most of us do not handle endings very well as we want to avoid feelings of grief. The importance of an ending is understated when we fail to acknowledge the impact that it has on our lives, when we discount or minimize the effect it has on us” (Rev. Robert Brumet)

Grief is a testimony of our love.

Taking a little time to recognize and celebrate the meaningful ways in which people have served with spirit, have given the best of themselves, in heart, body, mind and spirit is a gift beyond measure. Caregivers who have sacrificed and poured themselves out for the benefit of others, is a profound act of love. Creating a sacred space to bless and to honor the leave taking matters. Sensitivity and care are needed to respect the person's wishes, with the understanding that they can guide the process beautifully. 

In the giving of a blessing we are doubly blessed.

“Fill us then with your love and let us be bound together, united in the one spirit which makes your presence known in the world, and witness to the ultimate reality that is love. “(Richard Rohr)

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Watercolor by ~liz

How You Got Your Achilles' Heel - Days 291-295

   A few months after wonderful Rhonda Swanson became Executive Assistant to me as President & CEO of Baptist Hospital System she asked a challenging question: "I love working for you because you are a strong, inspiring & kind-hearted leader." Then she hesitated.  

   "What is it?" I asked, bracing for a complaint. However, Rhonda's tone was inquiring not accusatory. 

   "You are so good at teaching loving care why do you sometimes get so impatient?"

   It was & is a great question. I have spent a lifetime trying to figure out & solve this problem.

   Consider an ancient myth whose star's name occupies everyday language. Most talk of having an "Achilles' Heel" without knowing the origin. Learning it aids understanding of Radical Loving Care^®. 

   When a baby, Achilles mother (Thetis) went to bathe him in the River Styx whose waters gave lifelong immunity. As she lowered him toward the rushing current she realized she must hold onto a part of him. She picked his heel. 

   Ten years into the Trojan War, hero Achilles got cocky about his invincibility. When Paris, discovered his enemy's vulnerable spot he shot an arrow into it killing Achilles.

   Irritability signals my Achilles Heel: unintentional but occasional Arrogance.  Admitting it is the first step & I do. Oddly, I mess up the second step & turn shame on myself !  Self-loathing never heals. 

   The better choice is continuous cultivation of Arrogance's enemy. Humility nurtures Understanding. 

   The larger teaching of Radical Loving Care is the gift of Benefit of a Doubt. Why do we withhold that from others? It steals from us the fake comfort of self-righteousness & blocks us from offering Love's powerful gift:  Forgiveness.   

  Saints had weaknesses. Why do we think we, our friends, or even our enemies would not?

  We seek the benefit of a doubt. Are we giving it?

-Erie Chapman 

Image: Thetis Dipping the Infant Achilles into the River Styx by Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1625; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen)

Circle of Belonging: 289-290

 

Big Lesson

Today it feels so simple:

we are here to take care of each other.

How could we ever forget?

As if soil could forget

it is here to feed the trees.

As if trees could forget

they are here to feed the soil.

How could anything

ever get in the way of generosity?

How could we ever greet each other

with any words besides,

How can I help you?

As if light could forget

it is here to help illuminate.

As if dark could forget

it is here to help us heal.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

 

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel