Journal of Sacred Work

You Too Can Be A God! An Expert's Advice - Days 112-116

   Want to be a god? If so, I have the formula straight from someone who is a god.    

   If you are a regular reader, you know that I have enormous confidence in the genius of human beings age 0-6. Pay attention as they pass age three and their ability to articulate improves.   

  At five, my youngest grandson, Reed Chapman, has arrived. "I am a god," he pronounced during a recent visit. "Not God. Just a god," he said.

   The key to learning from little kids is: always take their insights seriously.

   "How do you know you're a god?" I asked.

    "I can make it rain and snow and make the sun come out," he reported. "Look!"

    As I gazed over his shoulder at the Minecraft game he was playing on his iPad I saw this god in action. 

    A few adroit moves from his little hands and it started to rain. A few more slights of hand and the rain turned to a storm. 

    "See?" he smiled sheepishly.

   My son, his dad, had been sharing the Greek myths with Reed. The ancients knew how to tell stories. Everyone of them is filled with heroes and gods.

   Reed makes himself "god-like" with a game. Caregivers do it with touches that vanquish pain and smiles that concoct joy.

   The suffering need "gods" to bring relief. Pills and shots and other magic medicines can do that. But caregivers often seem like gods to their patients. 

   "You are an angel," my wife told the nurse standing over her after she awakened from surgery. 

    "Well, not quite" the nurse laughed.

    "No, really," my wife insisted. "I'm telling you I can see light all around you. You are an angel."

     My wife was right.

-Erie Chapman

[Here is the video of Reed being a god. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjUG5xfHkYk ]

   

    

Fall in Love with Mother Earth: Days 110-111

Immersed in thought about what I might share today, I was caught by surprise. A blessing arrives  unearned, unbidden to awaken my spirit.  Glorious birdsong, a capella moment,  a majestic sympnony begins in revelry reaching a crescendo and then softening in the warmth of sunlight as the concert concludes. Now the occasional soloist continues to joyfully harken spring has arrived!

Ah, Mother Earth Day, a chance to reverence and celebrate her rapture,  mourn her destruction and respond to the urgent call for each of us to live more simply, humbly and with keen awareness that our choices, our way of being and living is a sacred unfolding.

John Phillip Newell, Celtic Minister and author considers John Muir to truly be one of the great modern prophets of ecological consciousness. Muir believed that all matter is essentially spirit and sacred.  A view that is reflective of ancient Celtic wisdom and spirituality.

What if, as Muir did,  we decided to live in such a way that how we approach our relations with one another, how we care for the most vulnerable, how we care for Mother Earth is how we honor and reverence the divine within us and all around us?

This is a challenge that I aspire to embrace. I am aware that I fall short in many ways but I am reflecting on how best to honor Earth Day this year, this day, every day. Significant changes are needed and I can (and have been embracing) one change at a time and will continue to build on this. 

Newell reveres, Muir as a prophet for speaking out courageously when he witnessed the desecration of nature that was unfolding in his time while also encouraging people to fall in love with the earth and to experience and touch upon the naked essence and splendor of God in nature. (Personnally, I find myself feeling closest to God when in nature.)

Newell likens the strength of Sequoia trees, not only individually but also their strength growing in relation to one another and in the intertwining of thier very roots, as how we need to respond to the urgent call for us to respond to the cry of the earth.  Newell’s offers this prayer, “may we access the Sequoia strength of God that is deep within, so that we can care for the earth and care for the future of our children and grandchildren and our grandchildren's children.  May John Muir's voice and vision bless us in this holy work.”

“…the care of the earth is our most ancient

and most worthy and, after all,

our most pleasing responsibility. 

To cherish what remains of it,

and to foster its renewal,

is our only legitimate hope.”

-Wendell Berry

 

You might enjoy listening to Newell share his thoughts on Muir in this 5min. YouTube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0khHxSVwZVA

 

Liz Sorensen Wessel

Photo Casey Homer on Upsplash

Wings of Comfort - Days 104-108

   What startled me when I spotted a Snowy Egret in Tennessee was not his rarity but his wings.

   When the wind lifts the curtains on my office porch they become wings.

   A Pacific wind merged the surf, my wife's dress and the clouds into a sea of wings.

   So many of my thousands of photographs symbolize flight.

   Flying dreams deliver the comfortable surprise of winged flight and the disappointment of awakening without them. 

   Patients under anesthesia routinely report the comfort of floating "as if they had wings."

   Athletes in the "zone" talk of flowing free as birds. The sexual experience may release lovers from earth's gravity.

  Underneath all the hard work, the struggles, the heartbreaks, the endless anxieties of delivering care to the sick an wounded, caregivers pray for angel's wings.

   Wings are comfort. That signal to me that when Death takes my body, my spirit will be freed of its weight. 

   Always seeking the wisdom of children, I asked my five year old grandson, "Where is God?" 

   Kids always know this answer. Reed winged his right arm skyward and proclaimed triumphantly, "Up there!"   

   -Reverend Erie Chapman

Photographs by Erie 

Every Day is Earth DAY! Days 102-103

Spring is a time when we begin to experience the miraculous beauty of rebirth and new life all around us. The month of  April is dedicated  to Mother Earth and to raising awareness of the importance of caring for the Earth and to protect and restore balance to our planet.

To set a historical context, Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 to provide a voice for an emerging environmental consciousness. At the time, 20 million Americans were inspired to take to the streets to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts. Thousands of colleges  organized protests against the deterioration of the environment and there were massive coast-to-coast rallies in cities throughout our nation.

Groups that had been fighting individually against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness and the extinction of wildlife, all united-on Earth Day around these shared common values. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers, business and labor leaders. By the end of 1970, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of other first of their kind environmental laws. (Earthday.org)

I’d like to share this 2 min video that expresses what is in the hearts of people and what Earth Day means to them and perhaps us...

“…the care of the earth is our most ancient

and most worthy and, after all,

our most pleasing responsibility. 

To cherish what remains of it,

and to foster its renewal,

is our only legitimate hope.”

-Wendell Berry

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel

Wonder & Awe Days 98-99

 

Special thanks to Terry Chapman for this inspiring guest essay!

 

Easter should be celebrated everyday as a rebirth of hope and gratitude for all God's blessings. We caregivers need assurance that our caring brings relief to those we care for and we need it everyday and every long night of our soul!

 
We are always pilgrims, seeking a better pathway along life's twisting roads and byways. Each of us has many mundane and tedious days and also an
occasional mountaintop experience. Cherish the views from on high!

 
Our overarching task on Earth is to identify our unique talents and then use them in ministries lay or ordained, in helping others!

 
This Easter morning, in the blessed quiet of your home, return to the quiet your soul requires and breathe deeply as you sense the sheer wonder and awe that is in all our beings and lives. 

 
From a baby's cry to the rise of a trout to a tiny fly to the love you receive and the love you give. And from  your adventures large and small-your learnings about what truly matters and what is simply dross that will blow away forever.

 

Strive to live each day as a caregiver as fully as you are capable of and always give thanks for in giving you receive and in dreaming of a collective better life, we are all moving toward Heaven, first on Earth and then in Heaven.

 

Terry Chapman

America Healthcare SOS! Part II The Metrics of Love in Staffing Crises

Bingham Memorial Hospital CEO Jake Erickson (pictured) knows how to solve the staffing crisis. And knows it's not a quick fix.

Bingham faced the same problems all hospitals did during COVID. But he did more than just raise pay. Jake followed the Radical Loving Care^tm (RLC) model. How do leaders show they care?

   One example. When some nurses left for higher wages, Jake and other staff periodically called to check in with them. "Nurses seek a place where they're valued as caregivers, not just paid help. We care when they leave as well as while they're here."

   When COVID demanded more from caregivers. Jake raised his efforts to care for Bingham's caregivers. Gradually, many nurses returned to the place where the CEO cared about them!

   The news is clear: Caregivers are not causing the staffing crisis, leaders are. When CEOs lead like Jake, the crisis can be eased. 

   Bad leaders think that America's staffing crisis is money-based. They see staffing as a "measurement," not a culture issue.

   But the evidence shows that hospitals with strong cultures have 1) lower turnover rates, 2) attract the best applicants for openings, 3) deliver the best care. 

   Culture mirrors leadership. The bad leader's mantra: "If you can't measure it, it doesn't matter." That model converts caregivers to "units of expense."

   Good leaders understand St. Exupery's line in The Little Prince: "What is essential is invisible to the eye."

   Love cannot be measured out in cubic centimeters and delivered by syringe. But love is our most powerful energy so every great culture nurtures it even against resistance. The late Jack Chester was measurement-obsessed. When he was vice chair of the Riverside Methodist Hospital (RMH) board he said one day, "Erie, your "loving" leadership gets great results. But you can't measure love so how could that matter?" 

   "How much do you love your kids?" I asked. 

   "More than anything," he answered.

   "So what matters most cannot be measured?" I challenged.

   He got my argument but never absorbed the point. After I left and Jack took over as chair of RMH parent OhioHealth, the loving culture gradually weakened. Many argue that it never recovered. 

   Leadership is primarily love-based or fear-based. Our endocrine systems teaches us which is which. 

   Bullying, nearsighted, bosses get compliance by threatening. They breed long term resentment, false loyalty, and resignations. Mix in leader incompetence and you know a big reason staffing remains short. 

   Loving leaders season cultures with high competence, deep compassion and excellence. This breeds peak performance, loyalty and cultures that attract the best caregivers. 

   Bullies demand blind loyalty. Loving leaders seek trust. Growing that takes a farmer's patience & an artist's passion.  

   Money is only a quick fix for short staffing. Great leaders like Jake Erickson play this card when necessary. But Jake is a farmer who knows that love's culture needs constant nurturing. 

   The boards of hospitals, hospices and nursing homes that honor their mission promise always insist that their CEOs lead with love.  

-Erie Chapman

A Message of Hope: Days 91-92

I’ve been journeying with the writings of Henri Nouwen this Lenten season and I found his thoughts on suffering very helpful. Here are a few excerpts from his writings, shared from a Christian perspective.

We are often tempted to “explain” suffering as “the will of God.”

Therefore, instead of declaring anything and everything to be the will of God, we must be willing to ask ourselves where in the midst of our pains and sufferings can we discern the loving presence of God?

Often, we see love surrounded by limitations and conditions. We tend to doubt what presents itself to us as love and are always on guard, prepared for disappointments. For this reason, we find it hard to listen with total trust and surrender.

The world in which we live today and about whose suffering we know so much seems more than ever a world from which Christ has withdrawn himself. How can I believe that in this world we are constantly being prepared to receive the Spirit?

Still, I think that this is exactly the message of hope. God has not withdrawn himself. He sent his Son to share our human condition and the Son sent us his Spirit to lead us into the intimacy of his divine life.

It is in the midst of the chaotic suffering of humanity that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love, makes himself visible. But can we recognize his presence?

By Henri Nouwen

The famous poem and original version of "Footprints in the Sand" was written in 1939 by Mary Stevenson. This poem speaks to my heart and perhaps it will to you as well.

Photo by Abbas Tehrani on Unsplash

One night I dreamed I was walking
along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed that
during the low periods of my life, when I was
suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,”You promised me
Lord, that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods
of my life there have only been
one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
you have not been there for me?”

The Lord replied,
“The times when you have
seen only one set of footprints,
is when I carried you.”

– Mary Stevenson

Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel