Journal of Sacred Work

   
(Editor’s note: We are pleased to present another guest meditation from Catherine Self, Senior Consultant to the Baptist Healing Trust.- Erie Chapman)
   A recent airing of The Mystery of Love, a PBS documentary produced with support from
the Fetzer Institute (http://www.pbs.org/mysteryoflove/)
 began with
the words “every life is a love story.” Pictures
of couples holding hands, parents embracing children, friends walking arm in
arm and worshippers bathed in the light of divine love seemingly reinforce the
possibility that, indeed, every life could be a love story.
  Of course, we know that not
every life reflects images of beauty and peace. In fact, for many, the quest
for love has been responded to by the cruelest teachers of the soul – betrayal,
dismissal, abandonment, or rejection…

  Experiences of abuse, of divorce,
of disease, of existing in a world that seems to be blind and deaf to one’s
need for love could engender cynicism in the most hopeful and altruistic among
us. In the rooms of healthcare and nonprofit organizations around the world, we
all have encountered lives apparently ignored by love’s kind hand.
   How does this happen? What is the mystery of
love that seems to touch the lives of so many and yet seems to bypass the lives
of so many others? Although the PBS documentary covered
everything from romantic love to divine love and even “the terrible love of
war,” a common theme in the differing kinds of love was captured by Jungian
psychologist and author James Hillman who noted “what all loves have in common
is the Other.”
   We, of course, understand that love finds itself brought to life
as we encounter and engage with each other. Every life, indeed, holds the
potential for a love story, but love’s mystery seems to lie in the willingness of
one to open the life pages of another, to read its words and to compassionately
seek to understand its meaning. Love asks
that we be willing to see and hear the other. Much like the word “cold” is our definition
for the complete absence of heat, and “black” is the word we use to define the
complete absence of color, perhaps hate and evil are the embodiments of a
complete absence of love. Few of us in the care giving professions would ever
admit to hate. But what of the times we overlook others, rushing by in our
haste to get our “work” done or simply being so filled with our own need for
love that we have no room for the needs of others. Far from being acts of evil,
we still risk hurt and harm when we lose touch with the other. On the other
hand, when our hearts are open to the other, Love and life flourish.
   I recently watched the words of a budding story speak loud and clear when love reached out to touch another. A Nashville-based
non-profit organization, the Park Center, provides a safe
place of learning and work preparation for individuals with mental illness.
Barbara Quinn, the Center’s director, invited me to tour the facilities.
However, unlike other facilities I have toured, this organization invites its
clients rather than its staff to be the tour leader. “Stormy,” a client of the Park Center,
volunteered and eagerly began our tour. As we moved through the first room,
another client – George – indicated with obvious disappointment that he had
hoped to be the tour guide. What would Stormy do about this, if anything, I
wondered? She offered a loving solution.
  “Why don’t we do the tour together,” she
offered.
  George’s face lit up. He enthusiastically
began to recount the programs and processes of the Park Center.
When our tour was ended George extended his arms and I fell into a warm
embrace. I found out later that none of the staff had ever seen George offer a
hug. The lives of Stormy who extended love and of George who felt the touch of
love are, I think, evidence of the love stories embodied by the staff of Park Center.
  There is nothing in life that love can’t
touch, that can’t be expanded by love. George’s life was certainly expanded by
the way Stormy reached out and included him. She could have chosen to selfishly
retain sole possession of a coveted role, or she could have simply dismissed
George’s obvious need for recognition.
   In a world colored
by hate and evil, we can all choose to live with a view through the lens of
fear, of competition or of loss. Or, like Stormy and the staff of The Park Center, we can choose to see the world differently, thru the lens of love.
   In this season of
Love and Hope, of Miracles and Belief, I celebrate and offer gratitude for you
who are care givers. I celebrate your lives and your sacred work as you minister
in quiet and often unseen ways to the countless who so desperately need
the touch of your love. May your love stories and those you awaken in others become
the legacies for the many who will later continue to weave the golden thread of
loving care.