Journal of Sacred Work

Halloween 1943: Nurturing, not Nightmares (Days 302-306)

   "Halloween 1943" sounds like a horror movie. I hope not.

   Three things unfolded well at my birth (noon, October 31, 1943)*. After the umbilical was cut I was raised to my mother's breast. Life giving milk. Equally important skin to skin contact.**

  Then, a standard test. A caregiver pretended to drop me. I threw out my arms as if to catch myself. 

   That balance test proves something Hitchcock incorporated into his movies. We all fear falling.

   Decades later I saw proof of how psychological orientation impacts sanity. Once, many ICU's were windowless. Now windows are mandated. 

   Helpless patients unable to distinguish day from night were developing "ICU Psychosis." Awakening from trauma, intubated patients wondered, "Does that analogue clock mean 10 A.M. or 10 P.M.? An inability to orient caused violent thrashing.

   Eighty years after my mother's first nursing, first hug and that scary falling test, I still need nurturing, balance and orientation IF I default to a chronic mistake: Defining my life by roles, making me a lawyer without clients, CEO without a hospital, t.v. host without a show, minister congregants, artist-poet-composer without an audience, father whose job is done. 

   But when my banker joked that I was a "has-been," I was glad to respond, "Better has-been than a never-was."

   Meaningful memories and beautiful remaining "roles": husband to a saintly wife of 57 years, grandfather to five, wonderful friends, the two-pronged ministry of Radical Loving Care^®...

  Wisdom warns that letting that determine self worth is repeating my old mistake. We are children of love and eternal light; not skin-to-skin but spirit-to-spirit with  God. 

-Rev. Erie Chapman

*My mother's first visitor that Sunday was her minister.

"Wow," I said, "A blessing."

"Not for me," she smiled. "He shook my bed when he sat on it and stayed too long."

Maybe that is why I am still restless in church.

**Photo by Erie: "Skin to Skin" (2012)

 

National Home Care, Hospice and Palliative Care Month Days 300-301

Erie Chapman has worked tirelessly throughout his distinguished career nurturing cultures of RLC and through his visionary leadership  has helped shape and transform the landscape of health care. He has long been a great supporter and advocate of hospice care and the sacred work of caregiving.

As we enter into November's National Home Care, Hospice and Palliative Care month we honor Erie's significant contributions. Throughout November we have an opportunity to pay tribute and celebrate all the dedicated, compassionate caregivers who accompany patients and families in their time of greatest need and who assist the most vulnerable among us to remain at home and in living the community.

May we engage our hearts and minds joining together to imagine what is possible in a community of Radical Loving Care

A Place of Belonging and Caring

We seek a beloved community:
A people who do not put fences around love.
A community that holds its arms open to the possibilities of love.
A heart-home to nourish our souls and share our gifts.
May the light of this flame remind us of the love surrounding and supporting us all.
May we each feel held by the gentle and fierce power of this love.

Let us imagine the stories of our lives as a starry universe above our heads.

As bearers of the flame, we are tasked and trusted to draw constellations in this, our beloved, small universe. May the stories we connect draw constellations that reflect a shared ministry that calls out the best in us.
By Rev. Kimberlee Anne Tomczak Carlson, (adapted by Rev. Leia Durland-Jones)

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Watercolor by ~liz

 

"Oh, Erie!" - Days 296-299

 "My problem playing alone is that I'm always getting mad at my partner," I joked to my close golfing friend, cardiologist Dr. Allen Naftilan.

   When Allen misses a shot, he shouts, "Oh, Allen!," so often that another pal gave him a golf towel with "Oh Allen!" written on it. 

   Golf courses are serene settings. Especially when no one is playing. When busy, the air is often pockmarked with epithets from those who have forgotten the game played amid nature. 

   It is great to joke about self anger in golf. Not so much in our professional lives.

   Self anger is natural. It can also turn into something highly toxic: self loathing. Responsible adults make the wiser choice. They take responsibility from mistakes and learn from them. 

   The opposite of taking responsibility occurs every time our former President speaks. His golf towel should read, "It is NEVER my fault."

   Our humanness guarantees mistakes. I am way am wiser about self anger than I used to. Still, too often, I hear a voice shouting at me and realize it is my own. "Oh, Erie!"

-Erie Chapman

    

   

The Power of One Smile Days 293-294

This is one of my all-time favorite images of my grandson Cyrus. The sincerity of his thoughtfulness to pick dandelions and present them to me was such a sweet gesture that warms my heart to this day. For me, it was the most beautiful bouquet ever!!! These are the memories that linger through time and rekindle emotions of love, joy and gratitude.

Today with all the horrific tragedies that are unfolding around the world it stirs emotions of  deep despair, anguish and helplessness. I find reassurance in knowing thet even the smallest gesture of love can make a difference for someone else. I came across this poem that speaks to my heart and I wish to share it with you.

 

One smile has the power to...

Calm fears.

Soften stone walls.

Warm a cold heart.

Invite a new friend.

Lighten heavy loads.

Promote good deeds.

Brighten a gloomy day.

Comfort a grieving spirit.

Offer hope to the forlorn.

Lift the downtrodden soul.

Patch up invisible wounds.

Weaken the hold of misery.

Act as medicine for suffering.

Fulfill the human need for love and connection.

~ Richelle E. Goodrich (adapted)

Thank you for all the many ways you offer light and love for the benefit of others and for the common good of all.

Liz Sorensen Wessel

Entering Another: one of "Ten Poems to Change Your Life" - Days 288-292

Symeon the Theologian
Turkey (949 - 1032)

NOTE: Although the following poem, cited Housden't as one of Ten Poems to Change Your Life , is by a 10th century Christian mystic, I offer it as a powerful commentary on how any of us may engage any relationship so deeply that it feels we have merged with that entity. - Erie Chapman

We awaken in Christ's body

by Symeon the New Theologian (10th century)

English version by Stephen Mitchell
Original Language Greek

We awaken in Christ's body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ, He enters
my foot, and is infinitely me.

I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly
whole, seamless in His Godhood).

I move my foot, and at once
He appears like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? -- Then
open your heart to Him

and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ's body

where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,

and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed

and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
he awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.

With Hearts Broken Days 286-287

With Hearts Broken

Spirit of Life, Source of all,
to this beautiful place
to this hallowed time
and in the midst of this kindred company
we bring hearts broken yet again by senseless violence.

This morning our thoughts are with
all those in Israel, Palestine and beyond
who have been touched by terrorism,
and the millions of refugees
who have to risk everything to flee this kind of violence.

We hold in our hearts
leaders in every nation who are struggling
to discern how to respond to this crisis
and the ever-present reality of terrorism that led to it,
and the millions of peaceful Jewish and Muslim faithful
who will suffer yet more prejudice,
yet more hate, yet more misunderstanding
because of the actions of violent fundamentalists.

We hold in prayer a world wherein such awful terror has become the new normal,
a world of people whose hearts are in danger of growing numb.

In such times as these it can be hard to find where our gratitude,
where our joy, where our serenity might have fled.
And yet nurturing these three—gratitude, joy, and serenity—is the most powerful resistance we have against terror.

So this morning, we choose to see the goodness in a world fraught also by evil,
we refuse to allow anger and fear to barricade themselves within us,
and we make time and space in our lives and in our hearts to count our blessings and give thanks.

We give thanks,
for kindnesses, big and small, when we least expect them,
for the coming of the autumn and winter holidays,
and for the endless opportunities’ life gives us to share our blessings, our wealth, our skills and passions with the world.

Lead us, Great Spirit of Love,
into lives of deeper gratitude,
deeper compassion,
deeper mercy,
deeper peace.

Fill our hearts with a thirst for justice,
a hunger for righteousness,
and help us be those in, with, and through whom
our world is transformed
into the one we hope and pray and dream for.

These and all things we pray for love’s sake.
Amen.
 

Adapted Prayer by Kristen Grassel Schmidt

Offered by Liz Sorensen Wessel
Candles by ~liz

 

Relics: Letters to the Future - Days 281-285

   It is just an ancient ID Badge, circa 1994. In the tiny constellation of my family, it has meaning because we treasure symbols of memory. This was preserved by my dear wife. 

   Most discard or dismiss family relics. Many career successors do the same with legacies. Too bad. Relics release memories. Legacies transform those who honor them. 

   The "P" triangle on my old badge stands for "Partners," the word we used to describe all caregiving colleagues (versus "employees" or "associates.")

   The pin adjoining it is a ten year service award. The "Life Choices" logo honors our T.V. show that was international, not just local.

   Below Riverside Hospitals (plural to signal the goal that all hospitals would practice the "RMH Way") is "A U.S. Health affiliate." My successor changed it to OhioHealth. I hoped we would become nationally honored for loving caregiving just as we became known by millions via our televised health message. That remains possible using the existing structure. 

   My ID title of CEO leaves out "President." I awarded that to Nancy Schlicting. The tiny words at bottom remain OhioHealth's value statement: "We honor the dignity and worth of each person."  

   No trivia says what the badge truly means. When I hold it I feel the presence of thousands of partners and hundreds of thousands of patients, families and community members whose lives we Partners touched from 1983-1995.

   That, for me, converts the old badge into a sacred family relic. A letter carrying a million memories and some legacies as well. 

-Erie Chapman

Announcing New Associate Editor Liz Wessel - Days 276-280

   Liz Wessel, R.N., M.S.N., is the newly named Associate Editor of Journal of Sacred Work. Not only is our selection long overdue, but she is completely perfect for the role of associate editor. She has been our weekend writer since shortly after our founding in June, 2006 and has been a spectacular supporter of the entire concept that underscores our mission: To offer loving care and support to caregivers. 

   We are both volunteers, (along with another key contributor, Dr. Terry Chapman) and yet Liz's contributions have been worth millions to the tens of thousands of caregivers who have come here for support and information. This includes her magnificent artwork as well as her elegant writing and many other contributions.

  Liz is Chief Mission Officer, Providence St Joseph Health Home & Community Care in the Southern California Region located in Orange, California. She is also a long-serving nurse with special expertise in palliative and hospice care. 

   The distance from Nashville to Orange is such that Liz and I have rarely seen each other in person across all these years. But we have always been very close spiritually and are dear friends. 

   It is my hope that the foundation that supports and advances Radical Loving Care^® in healthcare and the arts will make Liz permanent editor at some moment down the road. Meanwhile, please join me in expressing profound gratitude to Liz for her heart, for how she supports you, and for being one of God's great gifts to this earth. 

-Erie Chapman