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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The task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think as nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.  – Arthur Schopenhauer

Love
   One of the fascinating things about Love is that everybody sees it, most feel they know about it, but so few think of it in anything but conventional ways. As I travel the country speaking about the need for loving care in health care, I often experience a polite but indifferent response. "Yes, we know about love," many hospital executives say, "Of course, we agree with Love." And then there is the powerful, toxic backwash of the status quo and its companion, heartbreaking inaction. 
   The idea that Love might require a way of thinking that "nobody yet has thought" seems like a waste of time to many. Yet, what subject is more important than Love?…

   Among the most important thoughts about Love is the idea of integrating its practice into regular medical treatment. But the medical establishment remains skeptical. Esther Steinberg is quoted in the New_medicine
PBS book, The New Medicine, as saying "[Doctors] could not understand in scientific terms how something like a thought…could affect something as concrete as health." And this lack of understanding remains.
   One of the goals of medical treatment is to restore our sense of well being. And what is our sense of well being but a pattern of thoughts under girded by hope?
   Medical care can be delivered without Love and with a disregard for the role of thinking. Healing, however, is never advanced by such a disregard.
   Today, thousands upon thousands of executives, doctors, and other health professionals will gather in meetings to discuss the health of patients. Will any of those discussion include the role of Love in the healing process?
   For that to occur, it will be necessary "to think as nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees." It will be essential to think of Love as crucial to healing.
   In the future, caregivers will be called to engage the forces of Love as a regular part of treatment protocols. In the future, caregivers will discover that treatment without Love is a shallow exercise. In the future, Love will be the underpinning of the New Medicine.
   In the meantime, patients can only hope they are lucky enough to engage that rare caregiver who, in addition to curing tools, understands how to be a channel for Love’s healing energy.

-Erie Chapman

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5 responses to “New Thinking About Love?”

  1. Karen York Avatar
    Karen York

    We can continue to influence the practice of medicine through dedication and persistence in advancing the work of loving care. Thank you for leading the charge.

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  2. Carol Elkins, R.N. Avatar
    Carol Elkins, R.N.

    I think Love is getting more and more attention again in healthcare. It will take a long time for it to get the attention it needs and for executives to understand that this is what it’s all about. Thank you for what you are doing, Erie, to put the attention on love.

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  3. liz Wessel Avatar
    liz Wessel

    Along with Karen and Carol I wish to express my appreciation to you for your visionary leadership!
    Even the best and the brightest can fall into patterned thoughts of indifference. As caregivers we are lulled into complacency bordering on a pretext of “nothing ever changes, so why try,” as tremendous forces exert pressure to resist changing. Creating real systemic change requires building momentum to reach a critical mass that has the strength to tip the direction of the bell curve. Movement finally begins as everyone recognizes the change is taking hold and then they are willing to get on board to accept, and embrace, a new way of practice.
    In the Loving care movement; the vision is clear, our purpose true, and the path is calling to us. Champions are planting seeds in the hearts of many; momentum is building, and now is the time to believe!

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  4. Diana Gallaher Avatar
    Diana Gallaher

    I have often thought, and said, of Erie as one of the most courageous persons I know because of his emphasis on loving care. Our culture tends to berate loving care as non-productive, warm-fuzzy feelings, etc. And maybe this is true…a small amount of time.
    For me, in my Christian spiritual formation, I think of 1 Corinthinans 13. Paul speaks of noble acts as just a noisy gong or clanging cymbal without love. In Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, immediately before the words on love, Paul is addressing how it takes all of us bringing our gifts and strengths to make a whole to the sacred work we do – i.e, it takes a body. The last verse of Chapter 12 is Paul saying, “I will show you a more excellent way.” And that more excellent way is love. This is what Erie is showing us. This is what each of you is showing me. I am so thankful for the courage of all who strive to live the “more excellent way”, which is love.

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  5. liz Wessel Avatar
    liz Wessel

    Diana,
    Thanks for sharing your beautiful insights with all of us!
    Love,
    liz

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