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.

Recent Posts

About

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.

Roadside Flowers

Roadsideflowerslarge
Former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins, like all great poets. helps us appreciate that presence to roadside flowers teaches presence to life and to Love. Thanks to Karen York of Alive Hospice for bringing this poem to our attention.

Roadside Flowers

These are the kind you are supposed
To stop to look at as I do this morning,
But just long enough
So as not to carry my non-stopping
Around with me all day,
A big medicine ball of neglect and disregard….

But now I seem to be carrying
My not-stopping-long-enough ball
As I walk around
The circumference of myself
And up and down the angles of the day. 

Billy_collins_flowers
Roadside flowers,
When I get back to my room
I will make it all up to you.
I will lie on my stomach and write
In a notebook how lighthearted you were,
Pink and white among the weeds, 

Wild phlox perhaps,
Or at least a cousin of that family,
A pretty one who comes to visit
Every summer for two weeks without her parents,
She who unpacks her things upstairs
While I am out on the lawn 

Throwing the ball as high as I can,
Catching it almost
Every time in my two outstretched hands.

-Billy Collins

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4 responses to “Roadside Flowers”

  1. Karen York Avatar
    Karen York

    Thank you for highlighting this poem today and for choosing a photograph of the California poppy (my home state). Spending time with this poem broadens the awareness of how much effort we spend in balancing the non-stopping ball around all day so that we never look down and contemplate the presence of beauty at our feet.

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  2. Lorilee Amlie Avatar
    Lorilee Amlie

    I enjoyed reading this poem also. But I am a liitle unsure of what the sentence ‘A big medicine ball of neglect and disregard….’ meant. Is is referring to ourselves and how we don’t always care for ourselves? I agree alot of us are always juggling a big ball around and sometimes do not take the time to appreciate the small things of beauty in our lives.

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  3. liz Wessel Avatar
    liz Wessel

    I had a day like that yesterday Karen, amidst the tensions of too much too do and not enough hours in the day, my spirit sank low. I was conflicted, should I work late and forget my meditation class? In my state of mind I did not feel like going. I resisted the temptation to succumb to despair, and I went to class anyway. It was just what I needed to restore my equilibrium! 🙂
    I love the photo and the poem, thank you for sharing this gift with us. Roadside flowers take me back to my childhood days. Each summer our family would vacation in Colebrook, New Hampshire near the N.E. Canadian border. It was a beautiful, completely rural area with fields of wild flowers and a brook to fish in, dapple one’s feet, or take a swim. My most favorite pastime was immersing myself in the fields of color and to pick little bouquets of flowers to bring to mom. I was content to be in nature and frolic with butterflies, my young spirit so lighthearted and carefree.

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  4. Tom Knowles-Bagwell Avatar
    Tom Knowles-Bagwell

    I also remember during my childhood, the roadsides in Texas would explode with blooming wildflowers in the spring. Ladybird Johnson only enhanced the effect.
    The two words that jump out at me in this poem are the words “supposed to” in the very first line — “These are the kind that you are supposed to stop and look at . . .” Maybe it’s just me, but it’s that “supposed to” that gets me. I know that I have had a huge wrestling match going on inside of me for most all of my life. My opponent is “supposed to.” Maybe that’s why when I comply with the “supposed to,” I end up carrying around the results all day as “A big medicine ball of neglect and disregard….”
    For me, “doing” any action out of desire and joy feels more like Loving than the same action done out of the attitude of “supposed to.”

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