Journal of Sacred Work

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels’ hierarchies?
   -Opening to the Duino Elegies – Rainer Marie Rilke – (1875-1926) 

What do you seek here? Is it comfort? If so, I offer you all the comfort I can from the cool illumination of this page along with this news: you are loved.

If you seek comfort, I invite you to listen to your breathing, to be present to the air that warms as your body draws it in, holds it, exhales. Breathe in rest. Breathe in comfort

If you seek beauty here, I invite you to look around – to use your sacred eyes and ears…

What do you feel that is beautiful? For beauty is always there, waiting for you to notice her in her various disguises. What do you see now that you have never seen before? Breathe in this discovered beauty with each of your breaths. Exhale into the world your gratitude for this new sight.

If you seek to free yourself of loneliness, you have asked something I cannot answer. I can tell you one person who never seems lonely. He is the sidewalk preacher I see here and there who shouts his sermons into a heedless world. People wandering by are careful to ignore him. Instead, the sidewalk preacher addresses an audience of air. Often, he wears a smile. As if whoever he sees provides all the company, applause & "Amens" he could ever want. If he never felt heard in his younger years, he seems happy now, listened to by his hierarchy of angels. Perhaps he has an answer that has eluded us.

If I cried out right now, into offices emptied by evening, would anyone hear? If I spoke into a crowd or even to a small circle of friends, or even to you, would I feel heard?  If so, would the ghost of loneliness finally flee, replaced by angels carefully weaving me into their quilt of meaning?

Here is the gift for every care giver. As we enter the need of another, our loneliness departs.

-Erie Chapman

Today’s Poem: Nine Lines From David Whyte’s "The Winter of Listening":

What we strive for
in perfection
is not what turns us
into the lit angel
we desire,

what disturbs us
and then nourishes
has everything
we need.