Journal of Sacred Work

   What does Love look like?

   Today, she looks like spring. Even more, I’ve discovered
that, here in the south more than any place I’ve lived, spring is something you smell. I walked out my front
door Tuesday morning at 6:30 and was immediately drenched in her fragrance. So
many fragrances gathered about me that I couldn’t identify any one of them. They
cascaded over me the way a sudden rainstorm douses you with all of its drops
merged. You can’t pick out a single one. They all come at once. And then,
there is spring’s song...

   An hour before my entry into spring’s scent, I
awoke with a song, a pattern of notes that would not let me alone. Accompanied
by a background of cardinals and song sparrows just awakening, I wrapped my
right hand around my tape recorder and hummed the notes into the tiny
microphone.
   This is how I compose the music that appears on all three of
my CDs. Long ago, I tried to make up the notes. Now I just listen for them.
They are there, in the air. Regardless of outside noise, if I am quiet inside
myself, I can sometimes hear them. They are not my notes. But there are no one
else’s either. And they are everyone’s.
   Just as I couldn’t
identify a single flower and how she contributed to my morning experience of
spring, I can’t identify the source of my music. I can only say that when the
music sounds true to me, I believe it is the music of Love’s energy.
What does Love look
like, what is her scent, her sound, her taste? What does her touch feel like?
Beyond our senses, what is the soul of Love?
All of us can find
the answers to these questions if we find quiet within and listen for a voice other than our own.
   When people like
the music I’ve composed, I always enjoy taking credit. The truth is, no artist,
when they do their best work, has done it alone.
Solitary as
caregiving can often feel, no caregiver acts in a vacuum. When we are doing our
best work caring for others, we are living an energy beyond our own. It is
Love’s energy, the energy that powers everything good in life. The energy that
is spring’s scent, and her song.

-Erie Chapman

*The watercolor is by Dustan Knight