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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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8 responses to “Days 123-125 – Open Forum”
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Today I have the gift of a day off. Although I have housekeeping chores to do, they can wait. The day is just too good to miss. So, I got up early, threw on some clothes, and we headed down to Laguna Beach. I just began reading, “Bob Dylan Chronicles Volume One” passed on to me by a friend. I thought I would share this passage of Dylan’s experience of song writing with you.
“I can’t say when it occurred to me to write my own songs. I couldn’t have come up with anything comparable or halfway close to the folk song lyrics I was singing to define the way I felt about the world. I guess it happens in degrees. You just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs, especially if you’re a singer who has plenty of them and you’re learning more every day. Opportunities may come along for you to convert something-something that exists into something that didn’t yet. That might be the beginning of it. Sometimes you just want to do things your way, want to see what lies behind the misty curtain. It’s not like you see songs approaching and invite them in. It’s not that easy. You want to write songs that are bigger than life. You want to say something about strange things that have happened to you, strange things you have seen. You have to know and understand something and then go past the vernacular. The chilling precision that these old-timers used in coming up with their songs was no small thing.”
As a caregiver do you ever wonder about what you have to know, and understand to move beyond the technical job and into the way of the heart?LikeLike
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I am posting here a portion of a poem by David Whyte that calls me back to it when I feel lost or discouraged.
…And I want time/to think of all/the unlived lives:/those that fail to notice/until it is too late,/those with eyes staring/with bitterness,/and those met on the deathbed/whose mouths are wide/with/unspoken love./Every year/they keep me faithful/and help me/realize there is more/to lose/than I thought/and more at stake/than I thought./They remind me/why/I want to be found by love,/why I want to come alive/in the holiness/of that belonging…LikeLike
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Karen,
Thanks for sharing the holiness of your belonging, here in this circle. May you feel soft rose pedals of Love falling fragrantly upon you to lift your spirit in gentle blessings of peace.
With Love,
~lizLikeLike
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Liz, your day sounds wonderful. Starting next week, I get to move to 4/10 hour shifts instead of 5/10 shifts a week! I can’t wait. To answer your question about what we need to know to move into the way of the heart, I think we need to know forgiveness and patience. And love for others and ourselves.
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Lorilee, thank you I appreciate your thoughtful response. I am so happy for you and all that you have been able to accomplish through your hard work and perseverance. Wow, lots of change… soon you will graduate with your Masters in Nursing, as you transition into an exciting new role and have a better work schedule, your path is leading to a new way to live Love. Congratulations!
Here is another Bob Dylan quote from his book that resonates.
“ Sometimes you know things have to change, are going to change, but you can only feel it-like in that song of Sam Cooke’s, ‘Change is Gonna come’-but you don’t know it in a purposeful way. Little things foreshadow what’s coming, but you may not recognize them. But then something immediate happens and you’re in another world, you jump into the unknown, an instinctive understanding of it-you’re set free. You don’t need to ask questions and you already know the score. It seems like when that happens, it happens fast, like magic, but it’s really not like that. It isn’t like some dull boom goes off and the moment has arrived-your eyes don’t spring open and suddenly you’re very quick and sure about something. It’s more deliberate. It’s more like you have been working in the light of day and then you see one day that it’s getting dark early, that it doesn’t matter where you are-it won’t do any good. It’s a reflective thing. Somebody holds the mirror up, unlocks the door-something jerks the door open and you’re shoved in and your head has to go into a different place. Sometimes it takes a certain somebody to make you realize it.”
I wonder if this is what is happening in this Radical Loving Care movement. Caregivers persevering, day after day and noticing that a change is in the air. One day we find the tide has turned, we are on the brink of something new. Intuitively, we know which way to go. It just took a certain somebody to help us realize it.LikeLike
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Day 125
One last Quote a glimpse of life through the eyes of Bob Dylan.
“I can’t say I’d seen any performances that were like spiritual experiences until I went to Loma’s loft. I pondered it. I wasn’t ready to act on any of it but knew somehow, though, that if I wanted to stay playing music, that I would have to claim a larger part of myself. I would have to overlook a lot of things-a lot of things that might even need attention-but that was alright. They were things that I probably felt totally powerless over, anyway. I had the map, could even draw it freehand if I had to. Now I knew I’d have to throw it away. Not today, not tonight, sometime soon, though.”
I wonder, as caregivers when we come to the place of experiencing our work as spiritual will we be able to throw away the map? Perhaps, even let go of the old familiar ways of doing things to embrace the holy?LikeLike
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To wander in the woods, on the beach, through the valley with no map….I remember hours and hours of this as a child. During these times I would battle the great battles in a castle or rescue a damsel in distress. Now as adults who have been scarred with life and experiences we have the opportunity to walk without a map again.
Now we must allow the compass of healing and loving care to guide our every move. Lets take the freedom of dropping a leaf in the still pool of water and watching it turn to point us to loving care. This jurney is exciting and in fact exhilerating, we only have to have the courage of a child to allow us this opportunity.
I truely believe over the next hill of this meadow loving care exhists for all because of the groundswell of this entire community.LikeLike
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Liz, I enjoyed all the qoutes by Bob Dylan you included in this thread of postings. Your reference to throwing away our map makes me think of the term ‘sacred cow’ that I use to hear alot. Sometimes we do things only because they have always been done that way before. Maybe, we can do things in a loving manner that will one day become something we do “because we always did it that way”.
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