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.

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Day 37 – Love That Frees Us

February 6, 2008

Love Tells Us Who
We Are
-Donald Sanders (1944- )

Love is the only thing that can free us, but only if we are willing to be free. I used to think that everyone wanted to be free. It turns out this is not true. Freedom may feel like a dangerous place. Love holds uncertainty for those unwilling to surrender completely to her power.
Routine, on the other hand, holds the comfort of predictability and a kind of certainty. Some caregivers, after years of work, yearn for the freedom of retirement…

Once reached, however, retirement may feel disorganized, confusing, and purposeless. Caregivers without patients may feel completely adrift.

I often quote the part of one of Maya Angelou’s poems that goes: "Love costs all we are/and will ever be/but it is only love, which sets us free."
Why does Love cost so much? In part, this is because Love calls us to give up what we want in order to let Love guide us. God loves us. And Love is not interested in our ego. Our ego is the force which, I believe, most often draws us away from Love’s energy. We want the power and the credit. But Love seeks none of this and will not connect with us if we are only pursuing her so she will serve our power needs.
I’m not sure I have yet learned how to ease my ego out of the way. But, I do know that every so often, I catch a glimpse of Love’s light. On occasion, I can feel her moving through me. And the more I try to hold on to her, the more she slips away. She will not be possessed. And this is why we must celebrate her when she arrives, and wait patiently for her return.
Love tells us who we are. And the answer is that we are loved.

-Erie Chapman

Posted in Meditations

5 responses to “Day 37 – Love That Frees Us”

Karen York

February 6, 2008

We freely use the term, “falling in love”. More than ever I am understanding this idea. Falling in love with someone or something requires a letting go and letting it be. Such a hard lesson for humans who have an inate fear of falling. We crave security and stability. Letting go and falling is the ultimate test of trust in another to catch us, or at least to hold our hand and whisper encouraging words on the way down.
Rilke says:
How surely gravity’s law,/strong as an ocean current,/takes hold of even the smallest thing/and pulls it toward the heart of the world.
This is what the things can teach us:/to fall,/patiently to trust our heaviness./Even a bird has to do that/before he can fly.

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Tom Knowles-Bagwell

February 6, 2008

Trust, courage, surrender . . . all of these come to mind from reading this morning’s meditation. I find all of them in dynamic relationship with freedom. Yes, there is a cost to freedom.

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liz Wessel

February 6, 2008

Yes, I agree, our ego identifies with our individual personality, our roles, what we do, and ego tries to hold tightly and make solid, a life that is forever changing, fluid, and fleeting because it fears, if it lets go, it will cease to exist. Yet, our spirits live at a deeper level of knowing and of remembering our true nature, that at our core of being our essence is Love. As we surrender in acceptance to life we begin to live Love.
The beautiful image of Indra’s Net (previous Journal meditation) surfaces; each of us a jewel interconnected within a net, as part of a greater whole. As Love flows through us we all reflect a radiant light. As I receive your message, and let it sink in, I experience a wonderful feeling of peace. Three little words, “We are Loved,” say it all. Yes, we are Love, a Love that is unending.

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Diana Gallaher

February 6, 2008

This is a beautiful meditation – also the comments. Thank you.

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Roben Mounger

February 6, 2008

The ego is all powerful in this world – it causes us to react all life long. As Erie ponders the thought of “easing the ego out of the way” – I would suggest that there is a method available….Michael Brown and The Presence Process. Look into this beautiful design which can tame the ego and create an opening through which the light can shine.

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