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 140 – Presence to Still Life

May 19, 2008

Every museum holds paintings that frame the beauty that lives in ordinary homes. We call these paintings still lifes. These images help us pay attention to the everyday scenes that populate our own lives.
We are each vulnerable to taking our surroundings for granted. The camera, the paint brush, the poem are all ways to help us increase our presence to our lives.
The images on this page live in our home. Each scene is ordinary. What could be more common than a dish towel?
Yet, each demonstrates beauty when we become present to it…

How much time do we spend at the kitchen sink?
What do we see?

My wife is responsible for creating most of the still lifes in our home. She not only has a sweet gift for this but she pays exquisite attention to this lovely aspect of our lives.

Our bedside table often tells us something about our lives. An obsessive note taker, I need to have paper and pen near me all the time as well as the book I’m reading at the moment.
What are the quiet settings that surround you each day? What if you were to sketch them, photograph them, or write about them? Share what you discover with your family and caregivers at work and invite them to do the same.
Love deepens when we are present to the beauty that lives around us all the time.

-Erie Chapman

Posted in Meditations

6 responses to “Day 140 – Presence to Still Life”

Karen York

May 19, 2008

Thank you for these reminders of being present to our lives in the moment. I sat by my daughters in church yesterday. They are 14 and look far beyond their years when wearing make up, dresses and heels. I noticed though, their hands are remarkably young. I compared them grasping my finger with their entire fist while infants with the flurry of texting now. My hands look ancient compared with theirs, as I have weathered far more storms (and cleaning fluids). Their hands still hold the innocence of youth and the promise of young adulthood. While they are maturing so fast, I am thankful for this moment in their lives.

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~liz Wessel

May 19, 2008

What a beautiful reflection, Karen.
Thank you for awakening gratitude for simple gifts that we may take for granted and let slip by without noticing the beauty of their essence. I enjoyed your sharing little intimate reflections of Love in your family home. In my home, I like the quiet of morning and filtered sunlight shining in through beveled glass creating interesting patterns of light. For me, the most spiritual surroundings are ones that are simple and uncluttered where I experience a feeling of ease and openness for wonder to enter in and linger a while.

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Jan Jones

May 19, 2008

This may seem like such a simple thing but yesterday I found myself consciously being present in a way that was so special. I had an inordinately busy weekend and had almost every moment planned when following church and brunch with my family my son, who was exhausted from the previous night of my grandson’s wakefulness and fussiness, fell asleep. My daughter-in-law needed to go to the grocery store and I didn’t have the heart to say I needed to pursue what was on my “to-do list”. So, I found myself alone with my precious grandson for two beautiful hours that I otherwise would have missed. I actually meditated on my gratitude for this special time and found myself not only at peace but incredibly blessed. I managed to accomplish everything on my list in spite of the fact that it wasn’t according to my plan. Presence is such a beautiful gift and I am grateful to have received it yesterday and every day.
Jan

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Victoria Facey

May 19, 2008

The lesson I took from today’s post is that I should slow down and look around me. I loved every response and now I have “homework” to do. Good thing we have a holiday weekend coming up.
Thank each of you for your reflections and reminders to take in the moment and surroundings in our homes and lives.

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Yvonne Ginez-Gonzales

May 19, 2008

The presences of still life for me are the numerous pieces of paper of my children’s art that have overtaken two sides of my refrigerator. As I sit here and type this I can tell which pictures are drawn by which child. My 4 year old daughter seems to draw many of her pictures with a house with lots of flowers and a big sun looking down on our family of 4. There are others that are simply just hearts and some hearts that she has written “I love you, mom” in the best writing of a 4 yr. old. My son who is 7 years old is currently in the drawing mood of rainbows, pictures of cars, dinosaurs and of family. The pictures are done with crayons and markers and sometimes glitter glue (my daughter loves the sparkles) and often they will present them to me with an explanation of what they drew. This is the part I have come to learn to appreciate the most, because a lot of their pictures look like repeated creations of prior work, however, the stories tends to always be a little different for each one. I must admit that there had been times that I would tell them I was too busy at the moment to listen to them, gave their pictures a quick glance, tell them how nice they were, and to just put it on the refrigerator. Then one day unexpectedly my daughter said, “Mom you don’t love me, you aren’t looking and started walking away with her head done and sad face.” It was then that I realized that I may have the picture forever, but I won’t have the precious innocence and imagination in my children’s thoughts and words forever. It really hit me hard. So now I stop what I am doing and give them 100% attention when they come to me with a drawing and we write the date on the back of the picture, a little summary about what they tell me the picture means to them. This way I am able to capture those intimate moments with them. My husband is also starting to participate in the same way when they come to him. We recognize now that the day will come when the refrigerator stops being used as a place for their scribbles and their expressions of creativity and imagination, but until then I want them to know with each drawing how precious they are to me.

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liz Wessel

May 19, 2008

These are such great posts today. I think they need to be put aside or placed in your family memory books to be shared at a later time when all these young ones have grown up!

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