Journal of Sacred Work & Radical Loving Care

Just Keep Listening: Days 364-365

 

                                                                         

 

I am thinking of you all and wishing you a glorious new year! 

Thank you for the unique light you shine into our world for the benefit of others!

Liz Sorensen Wessel

The Blessing of Light: Days 351-352

May the blessing of light be on you - light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,
so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.a

And may light shine out of the two eyes of you,
like a candle set in the window of a house,
bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.

And may the blessing of the rain be on you,
may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,
and sometimes a star.

And may the blessing of the earth be on you,
soft under your feet as you pass along the roads,
soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day.

And  may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly.

Amen

A Scottish Blessing

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Mandala by ~liz

Is Life a "Quest?" Days 346-350

   If a quest for meaning requires adventure you have been on one since you choose caregiving. Your harder stories are easier to tell than live because caregiving is peppered with challenges to quit.

   You who stayed are my heroes. What keeps you going?

   In 8th grade Mrs. Emerson handed us one of the greatest quest stories in history. The tale of Odysseus (aka Ulysses) is The Odyssey of Homer. The hero's story is so riveting it survived a three-thousand-year journey from Homer's hands through millions more before it reached mine.

   Ulysses's quested to see "new worlds." His journey's monsters are so vivid their names are woven into storytelling's fabric.

  You may know Homer's Sirens, witches whose songs & beauty were so alluring that sailors would dive overboard & swim to their deaths.

   However, Ulysses protected his sailors by blocking their ears with wax. Desperate himself to hear the magic songs but unsure of his ability to resist them he had his crew lash him to the mast & ignore any pleas he made for release. 

   Temptations, of course, are as dangerous as any gun-toting thug. Homer knew that. One of his questers was the warrior Achilles who could not be killed because his mother had dipped him into the river Styx whose waters would protect him. But she had held her baby by the heel thus leaving that spot vulnerable.

   Think of that next time that tendon of yours hurts.

   How many Siren songs have entered your ears? How many discovered your Achilles heel & tried to take advantage?

   Tell me neither has happened & I will tell you your life has been a rest not a quest. 

    Tennyson's poem, Ulysses, ends with my mantra: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." 

-Erie Chapman

Painting, "Ulysses and the Sirens" John Waterhouse, 1891

Star of Bethlehem: Days 344-345

PLEASE NOTE THIS RECORDING I MADE AS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO YOU -

CLICK ON THIS LINK: Download LIZ AUDIO FOR JSW

Spiritual traditions understand December as the season when the sun arrives late and leaves early and with this greater darkness brings with it a sense of our own vulnerability. December 21^st is the longest night of the year and marks a celestial event that’s been interpreted as a possible source of the "Star of Bethlehem" nativity story. Just as light shines in the darkness, so the star is often considered a symbol of truth, spirit, and hope. The star embodies the notion of spiritual revelation in each of us.

Stars remind us of our own resilience, especially when we're feeling down. They offer reassurance of our great qualities when we need it most. The star is a symbol of great hope that can help to guide our way. Just as stars shine, they encourage us to allow ourselves to shine, too.

Black Elk of the Ogala Lakota Indigenous people, offers a beautiful glimpse into their sense of interconnectedness with all of creation. “O Great Spirit of the heavens, in the day's infinite blue and amid the countless stars of the night season, remind us that you are vast, that you are beautiful and majestic beyond all of our knowing or telling, but also that you are no further from us than the tilting upwards of our heads and the raising of our eyes.“

Each one of you are just as miraculous as the turning of the earth, as constant as the northern star shining brightly in the darkest of nights, lighting the way for others. We see the love you give to others, the space you create to hold one another's joys and sorrows, and a generosity of spirit that is ever present.

You are a miracle, and we are a community of miracle-makers.

EDITOR'S. NOTE: In case you missed the link, above here again is Liz's audio recording which I uploaded for her. It is lovely and magical. Click on the link - Erie 

Download LIZ AUDIO FOR JSW

Liz Soresensen WesselAUDIO 
Navity scene by ~liz
North Star- Source-Unsplash
Sunset Photo- by my friend Jeanne Beato Peterson

Can We Go Home Again? Days 318-322

   In Act III of Thornton Wilder's, "Our Town," Emily, deceased during childbirth, speaks to her fellow spirits, begs to return to  one day in her life & is warned against it. 

   "But it's a thing I must know for myself. I'll choose a happy day, anyway." Her wish is granted.

   You & I share Emily's hope in other ways. We seek return to best days & know we cannot. We can do something impossible before: enjoy both today and those days through reflection & reunions (e.g., RMH Facebook Page.)

   I do that often. 

   June 30, 1983. I parked on a hill & stared down at the campus I would lead in 12 hours. Riverside Methodist was the largest hospital in Ohio. 8000 caregivers, including 1500 doctors, attended to thousands. 

   Thirty-nine, I was humbled & thrilled. If I took care of the people who took care of people those caregivers would have better lives.  

   June 30, 1995. Exactly 12 years later, I walked out the door for the last time as CEO of RMH & OhioHealth, thrilled by huge changes & heartbroken it was over.  Other fine opportunities awaited but RMH was the longest & best. 

   To which of my 4,380 days at RMH would I return? Most, but not all. 

   Jovial Tom Van Papingham from maintenance wore OSU suspenders every day. I took him to a game. Arriving just before kickoff there was Tom wearing a giant smile & those OSU suspenders.

   "Any trouble parking?" I asked. 

   "Nope. Got here two hours ago," he chuckled.

   "Wow. How many games have you attended?"

    "This is my first! Isn't it great?" he said. 

   OSU lost that day but Tom won. He may not have been a nurse, doctor or therapist but Tom helped our leaders understand that everyone was a caregiver. No maintenance, no hospital. 

   A million moments prove that "small" times anchor reveries. Amazingly, staff still thank me for showing up: to congratulate them on a new baby,  thank them for their hard work, work a half-shift beside them in uniform in every area from laundry to nursing, thank (the late) Marcy Alton for world class employee recognition events. 

   Our leadership team enabled home runs like Hospice at Riverside (Tracy Wimberly), McConnell Heart (Jeff Kaplan), Elizabeth Blackwell Women's center (Tracy), new day care center & (in photo) on-campus grocery store (Mark Evans & Carole Stanley), & much more.

   Metrics endorsed our culture as patient/employee satisfaction soared above the 90th percentile for ten straight years with parallel results in quality & finance. Our strength gave me the base to found OhioHealth. 

   On national television n 1994 ABC News' Forest Sawyer declared we had lifted Riverside to "One of the top 10 hospitals in America."

   David Whyte teaches us Emily's trick: "Memory is not just a then, recalled in a now, the past is never just the past...memory is...a then continually becoming other thens...creating a continual but almost untouchable now."

   Yes. We can go home again. 

-Erie Chapman

Photo posted on Facebook by Colleen Timko

P.S. I Googled Tom and could not find him.