Journal of Sacred Work

Caregivers have superpowers! Radical Loving Care illuminates the divine truth that caregiving is not just a job. It is Sacred Work.

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Former President & CEO of multiple hospital systems and founding president & CEO of 20-hospital OhioHealth, best selling author, film artist, ordained minister, composer, published poet, syndicated T.V. host, trial attorney, federal prosecutor and Municipal Court Judge. Erie is internationally known as the founder of the Radical Loving Care(R)movement. He also heads Erie Chapman Foundation, Dane Dakota Productions, LLC, and Chapman Health International, Inc.

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Meditation: On Our Legacy

June 29, 2006

I ain’t dead yet. –Woody Guthrie

We express ourselves in our work, whether we want to our not. Our legacy of spirit is not something aimed at a history book but is something that arrows through each of us each day & enters the hearts of others.

History doesn’t feel our love. People do.

We fill/spill our library of tears, shake our rattles full of laughter, tip our cups of anger, needle out our frustration, offer our gifts of compassion & it’s all there in our work.

The surprise is, it turns out that everything matters…

& since everything matters then you matter & I matter & the nurse bringing you a styrofoam cup of cool water to still your thirst matters because you need & she is needed.

All the love in the world will meet some of the need, bathe this need in her soft eyes, salve it with finger strokes, cool pain’s fire with the breeze of her breath.

You have loved & given love. You have suffered & carry scars.

Since everything matters, what will you do today to love away another’s need? Will you leave work one night, on your last night, with your love unspent – circling unused in the jungle of your fear?

Will you leave work one day, at the end of your last day, knowing you have spread the cloak of your compassion to stanch the fire of another’s agony?

What legacy will you celebrate at the end of this day? The one you are living now? The only one you will ever have.

Posted in Meditations

5 responses to “Meditation: On Our Legacy”

Elaine Baldwin

June 29, 2006

Thanks for the remarkable beauty of this piece – the opposite of the nihilist notion that nothing we do matters. You have given me new hope in my life.
Sincerely,
Elaine Baldwin

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Jane L. Sirac, R.N.

June 30, 2006

Thank you for your ability to combine thoughtful meditations in a poetic way.
Jane Sirac, R.N.
New York

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liz wessel RN, MS SJHS Home Health Network

June 30, 2006

I would like to share your thoughtful reflection with our caregivers. I think it offers a an illuminating perspective on what is really important in our work.
In my current work situation there is a still a perception of employees as direct and indirect care providers. Slowly, a cultural shift is evolving towards employees viewing themselves as co-ministers (whether or not they ever touch a patient).
I appreciate your sharing these beautiful words that inspire us to be truly helpful to others by offering them our love.

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Tammy Blue, CCRN

July 2, 2006

“I’m not dead yet.” I love that! But many nights I wonder, after 22 years of doing the same thing, if I’m still alive.
Tammy Blue, CCRN

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Karen York

July 6, 2006

Wow, I have been on vacation and missed this piece. Magnificent in its profound truths. I appreciate the candor of Tammy Blue in her wondering if she was still alive. The very nature of your question tells me that you are very much alive! When we stop questioning ourselves and the nature of our existence, then we’ve given up. I am confident that Tammy’s patients feel her warmth and gifts of loving care.
Karen York,
Alive Hospice, Nashville

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