Journal of Sacred Work

The Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi Days 272-273

October 4th is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology and beloved by many. I offer this reflection in his honor.

The story of St Francis embracing the leper is one that posed a challenge for Francis and offers many parallels to the challenges of our times. 

In Assisi during Francis’s life, leprosy was a terrible plight for those afflicted with the disease. They were excluded from society and banished beyond the city limits and were viewed as untouchables to be avoided and shunned. As a young man, Francis feared and was repulsed by people with this disease.

However, one day when travelling he encountered a person with leprosy on the side of the road in need of assistance. Francis first inclination was to turn away, yet something about the man moved him and he felt compelled to get down off his horse and then he reached out to embrace the man. In that moment he experienced a profound opening of his heart. Instead of seeing an outcast he saw the light of Christ gazing back at him. This experience awakened Francis to follow a limitless call to love and to be of service to others.

Caregivers move towards those who suffer rather than turning away. I hold you in the highest esteem and I thank you for giving your hearts to service with your skills, expertise, and kind spirits and to accompany people in their time of need. Thank you for the many ways you live love and help to ease the way for others.  

With deep gratitude,

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Photo Source: The Franciscan Spirit Blog

"I Own Everything I See" - Days 267-271

 The title quote is from my saintly, mother-in-law, Marian Lokvam.* As a hyper-visual "see-er" that line became a favorite. I did not have to own a field of flowers to smell them or a car to enjoy riding in it. 

  Is seeing enough or do we have to "own"? When we own, what do we have actually have?

   The power in Marian's comment arises when we ask more deeply: What do we own? And its companion suggestion that maybe we never really own anything or anyone; that the very idea of "pride of ownership" triggers murders, wars and personal agony.

   Look at our ownership language: My house. My car. My job.

   Of people: My wife. My children. My sister. My friends.

   What happened to "my" mother, you first-borns, when the your sibling arrived?

   In a hospital, "My nurses" sounds different depending on whether it is spoken by a nursing director or a patient. 

   When I disagree with a doctor's recommendation I am always surprised when they say, "Well. It's your body." Were they subconsciously thinking my body was theirs?

   Why did the feminist movement gain traction with the phrase "It's My Body"? Because my fellow males so often abused women's rights that consciousness needed to be raised and laws changed. 

   Ownership requires at least two adjectives: "privilege and permission." I never really owned any "thing" or "person."  I was simply granted privileges and permissions for some period. 

   So long as I thought too literally that Tyler and Tia were MY children, their successes and failures became "mine." Marian's enlightened "owning-by-seeing" frees up healthier relationships. It sends jus again, and always for the first time, to Kahlil Gibran's oft-stated and rarely followed wisdom, quoted in part: 

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you... 

-Erie Chapman

P.S. Since writing this a thief named Covid stole "my" sense of smell and should return it, right?

Photo: Marian Lokvam, at right, helping Kirsten on our wedding day - 1966

The Greatest Hitter In The World Days 265-266

“I do have reasons for hope: our clever brains, the resilience of nature, the indomitable human spirit, and above all, the commitment of young people when they're empowered to take action.”
~Jane Goodall

Inner conversations are going on all the time in our minds. In an attempt to keep us safe thoughts can arise to alert us to perceived dangers.  All of us have a internal voice, I have a voice in my head that is often critical and admonishing. Thoughts naturally give rise to emotions and for me feeling of anxiety that manifests in my body, perhaps as a knot in my stomach or tension in my shoulders etc.

It helps to settle our nervous systems with mindfulness practices. Pausing to focus on our breathing is a simple yet profound way to return to a sense of calm, focus and presence. In this way, we can listen to the inner voice that is loving and compassionate and let the fear-based thoughts float on by, with awareness that these are only thoughts “that are real but not necessarily true”, as Tara Brach would have us remember. Gradually, the voice of Love is the one we listen to, the voice that is real and true, for we are beloved.

This brings me to recall Rumi’s fantastic poem called”

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each as been sent
as a guide from beyond.
by Rumi, translated/interpreted by Coleman Barks

And Richard Rohr would have us remember that “this too…everything belongs.”

These days I try to notice when an unkind word reverberate in my head, I try to acknowledge it, sometimes even say thank you for trying to safeguard me and then offer myself a kind word, a touch of my hand on my cheek and a loving thought.

I think this idea of a replacement picture is very important in fostering well-being and a sense of optimism. The following one-minute video feature a child who does this instinctively and is guaranteed to will bring a smile to your face!

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

~Louisa May Alcott

 

Liz Sorensen Wessel

"Eating the Sun" - Days 260-264

For caregivers, light is an energy cultivated for curing. Managed channels of electricity enable doctors to diagnose with imaging and to treat with lasers. 

The greater Light of Healing beyond curing preceded and supersedes all of that. Scientists may have sought to diminish its spiritual aspects. But they are powerless to diminish its meaning in the broad arc of human existence.  

A contemporary writer whose work has captured my spirit is Maria Popova. Her book, Figurings, is transformative. Her gifts continue through her weekly column in Marginalian. I recommend it to anyone interested in seeing how one writer, regularly offering her gifts and those of other artist's. She and they lift life's quality as they dissect important ideas and illuminate Many of Beauty's most exquisite details. 

This week, Popova aimed the the laser of her genius at the subject of how we see, and cited an expert unknown to me. One with a spectacular gift and a terrible curse.

First, his gift:

"No one has written about what it takes to see," Popova wrote, "— and how to do the looking — more poignantly than Jacques Lusseyran (September 19, 1924–July 27, 1971) in his stirring memoir And There Was Light.

"Looking back on his blissful early childhood, Lusseyran recounts his formative enchantment with the world:

  "'Light cast a spell over me. I saw it everywhere I went and watched it by the hour… flowing over the surface of the houses in front of me and through the tunnel of the street to right and left. This light was not like the flow of water, but something more fleeting and numberless, for its source was everywhere. I liked seeing that the light came from nowhere in particular, but was an element just like air. We never ask ourselves where air comes from, for it is there and we are alive. With the sun it is the same thing.
   "There was no use my seeing the sun high up in the sky in its place in space at noon, since I was always searching for it elsewhere. I looked for it in the flickering of its beams, in the echo which, as a rule, we attribute only to sound, but which belongs to light in the same measure. Radiance multiplied, reflected itself from one window to the next, from a fragment of wall to cloud above. It entered into me, became part of me. I was eating sun.'"

Then, Popova reveals the curse. Lusseyran, the genius of light, had been struck blind at the age of seven.

It is the answer to stories like these, and the questions they raise, that sends me to her column every week.

We cannot look directly into the sun. But Lusseyran says he could eat it. In the summer of 2018 I photographed someone doing that. Today, I named that image "Eating the Sun".

-Erie Chapman

"Eating the Sun" - by Erie Chapman, 2018

The Thin Places Days 259-253

Nature has so much to teach us,  if we let it! In Celtic spirituality there is reference to the "thin places" or a space in which we encounter the sacred. 

Perhaps we come into a state of heightened awareness of a divine presence.  One of those moments that you cherish. 

When has the Spirit caught you?

Walking in the quite hush of the forest and listening to birdsong... 

or in a conversation that creates connection...

or gazing up at the stars and awakening mystery...

Maybe when you are with friends and share a good laugh...

Perhaps in a poignant time of loss...

or a tender gesture of love...

maybe releasing an old hurt or grudge and experiencing forgiveness...of ourselves and others...

With these thoughts in mind I offer a blessing of Light by John Phillip Newell

 

Light

May the angels of light
glisten for us this day.
May the sparks of God’s beauty
dance in the eyes of those we love.
May the universe
be on fire with Presence for us this day.
May the new sun’s rising
grace us with gratitude.
Let earth’s greenness shine
and its waters breathe with Spirit.
Let heaven’s winds stir the soil of our soul
and fresh awakenings rise within us.
May the mighty angels of light
glisten in all things this day.
May they summon us to reverence,
may they call us to life.

(from Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace, 2011)

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Photo by my niece, Chrissy Maio

 

What if you were not there? Day 253

What if you were not there?

Most caregivers offer help and hope, but never consider what would the person helped do if you hadn't volunteered your care. More than happenstance created a moment of need that you only responded to with selflessness, courage and love.

That person might have failed to recuperate or even survive without you! You, the volunteer caregiver, whether in a home setting or a VA hospital, or a hospital or clinic or even along the highway, become a guardian angel to that needy person at that time.

Professional caregivers are also mercy carriers in times of need.

Always be grateful that you used your unique God given gifts--special abilities or personality to make care happen!

Never ever doubt that even small unseen acts of care and loving, bring smiles to God's face and should also give you a gratefulness beyond limit for being one of millions who look outward and step in to help when needed!

~ Terry Chapman

 

 

 

Photo Liz Wessel's grandchildren 2012

 

The Seeds You Plant Days 246-247

 

" Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant." Robert Louis Stevenson

Here are seven good things about work to think about and celebrate over Labor Day weekend:

1. Work is an expression of our giftedness and an investment in the common good of our community.

2. We are wise to establish and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

3. We honor our Creator by doing all our work with excellence and integrity.

4. Throughout the course of our lives, much, if not most, of our work will be teamwork.

5. Great things are accomplished when people commit to a strategic vision and mindset. Effective work requires focus and determination.

6. We usually find our vocation or our calling as we discover and live out our passion. Frederick Buechner contended, “Your vocation in life is where your greatest joy meets the world’s greatest need.”

7. The effectiveness of our work cannot be measured by how quickly we see results. Sometimes we see the fruit of our labor and sometimes we work believing the next generation will be blessed by the fruit of our labor. 

"If you have a place to live, food to eat, someone to love, and good work to do, then you are among the most blessed people in the world. Eric Hoffer deduced, 'The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.' Work can be frustrating at times and rewarding at other times, but it is a privilege never to be taken for granted."

Thank you to all the workers who give so much of themselves for the benefit of others.  May you keep the Sabbath and experience rest and renewal the Labor Day week-end.

Adapted from an essay by  Barry Howard 
Shared by Liz Sorensen Wessel

Artist: My friend Diane Barrows

The Superiority of The Feminine Divine - Day 245

   Although raised male in a male-dominant world by a great dad who taught me "how to be a man," I always wondered about the role of women.

   "Always respect them," Dad sternly instructed. But was I really "superior" as society implied? 

   Nope.

  Fortunately, the "male" assertiveness I developed was balanced by my mother and two sisters. But as a boy I wondered why men dominated the world. Even religion. With the exception of the Virgin Mary, where were the women?

   Thank heavens we are in an age where the sexes appear to be entering balance. Indeed, gender identification is in dispute. 

   In 2019, I explored The Feminine Divine in my two-month-long film art show at Vanderbilt Divinity School's Art Gallery. No one objected to the nudes. Only that I was not gender-inclusive enough. 

   In early 20th century England, feminist Francis Swiney advanced the fascinating notion that "all life, spiritual as well as physical, begins as female. [Evolutionarily] the masculine was only a temporary and transitional phase, between the eternal feminine cause and the eternal feminine effect."

   For Swiney there was only one sex, the feminine...Men were simply imperfect women, both physiologically and spiritually," she argued. (emphasis added)

  This is about energy difference not body parts.  Society adapts slowly. How much longer can we tolerate the violence routinely caused by men? We desperately need balance.

    Balance is what happens in the best healthcare settings. Healing occurs only when male assertive-energy (via man or woman) is balanced by feminine nurturing (via woman or man).

   The time for men to recognize the superiority of the feminine divine is not only here, it is long overdue!

-Rev. Erie Chapman 

Poster-art Courtesy, Vanderbilt University Divinity School