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 91 – Tasting Sacredness

March 31, 2008

Something opens our wings./Something makes boredom and hurt disappear./Someone fills the cup in
front of us./We taste only sacredness. – Rumi

What a sweet opportunity each of us has to offer sacredness to those nearby and far away. Because of the weight of our egos, it takes a conscious effort to find what would fill the cup of in front of another.
I know what feels like a sacred gift for me, though I’m not always sure what it is for others. Recently, I received a note from a kind-hearted leader at a Midwestern hospital who took the trouble to write me to say how vividly he recalled a speech I gave four years ago and how he continues to practice some of the things he learned in that hour and a half.
Of course, my ego was pleased. Beyond that, this man offered testimony to the way we may awaken sacredness for another without our knowing…

As a child, I wondered how people could ever be bored. The world seemed endlessly exciting to my young heart. As with all children, I was soon cast into controlled settings like church, school and restaurants, where sudden explosions of enthusiasm were rapidly punished.
Loss of enthusiasm about the world is a heart-scarring experience. Sometimes, though, in the middle of monotony and hurt, a sacred moment appears to us. Someone offers us a kindness that reminds us of our own humanity. We brush the hem of Love. Hope returns.

As each of us knows, our hope can be fragile. Psychology professor Martin Seligman (left) developed the concept of Learned Helplessness. According to this notion, animals can be programmed to withdraw into states of inactivity to such an extent that they lose the capacity to escape or to protect themselves. They become as helpless as any human who has surrendered to despair and routine. [Note: Seligman also developed the concept of Learned Optimism, a phrase which may explain itself.]
As we offer our gifts of caregiving, we can reawaken hope in another, sometimes with the smallest gestures, sometimes with efforts that are harder and more sustained.
How do you offer sacredness to others in ways you know are meaningful? Do we even need to know the impact of our kindness? Some believe kind acts are sufficient by themselves for Love to find its way in this world.

-Erie Chapman

Posted in Meditations

5 responses to “Day 91 – Tasting Sacredness”

Tom Knowles-Bagwell

March 31, 2008

Oh wow, I don’t think it would be helpful for me to think of what I do as offering sacredness to others. That would tend to get in my way and turn into an ego trip for me. I do hope that through my caring something of the Sacred will be at work. As far as needing to know the impact of my caring . . . I guees I would have to confess that I do need to know at least sometimes what that impact is. I think of it like driving a car. I don’t need to stop at every gas station I pass. But eventually I do need to stop and refuel if I want to keep driving.

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~liz Wessel

March 31, 2008

I like your analogy Tom!
There are so many ways for Love’s light to illuminate an encounter. Sometimes, it is reaching out to open a door into a conversation with someone I do not know and recognize that person as a friend, rather than a stranger. For me, the most sacred times are when I am open and relaxed enough to be myself without guardedness or worry of what other peoples expectations are, of how I ‘should be.’ I can begin to glimpse my essence (with gifts and limitations) within the safety of a non-judging eye. This acceptance opens a new dimension to experience the sacred in others and myself…a real human experience.
Great questions for exploration, thank you.

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Karen York

March 31, 2008

You have only to look into the eyes of zooed animals to observe this learned helplessness. Rilke describes this amazingly in his poem “The Panther” after spending 9 hours observing them in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.
“His vision, from the constantly passing bars,/has grown so weary that it cannot hold/anything else. It seems to him there are/a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world. / As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,/the movement of his powerful soft strides/is like a ritual dance around a center/in which a mighty will stands paralyzed./ Only at times, the curtain of the pupils/lifts, quietly —. An image enters in,/rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,/plunges into the heart and is gone.”
So how do we as domesticated beasts retain our wild heart?

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Erie Chapman

March 31, 2008

Karen
The Rilke lines about caged animals are stunning. His language is such a commentary on the latent power in every organization; a power that rarely finds expression.

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Victoria Facey

March 31, 2008

What a beautiful lesson for today! I often don’t look for an acknowledgement for sacred acts of kindness (they can sometimes spoil you). Rather, I wish these small “gifts” would become second nature and in time, part of your daily behavior. I also love it when I receive them.
Don’t you wish this type of behavior was contagious?

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