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.

Day 142 – Telling the Truth

Blake
"There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something
in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of
Lord Byron and Walter Scott." – William Wordsworth on the death of William Blake.

   William Blake (1757-1827) is recognized as one of the greatest painters and poets in the history of the English language.  He remains so popular that, for example, actor/director Roberto Benigni famously quoted him when he accepted an Oscar in 1998. "He who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity’s sunrise," Benigni trumpeted as he kissed the statuette and millions around the world cheered. But Blake himself was condemned during his life because of what many around him considered his irritating tendency to tell the truth. He believed he saw angels and he painted what he saw (above & below, left)…

   We’re always being encouraged to speak our minds. Yet, there can be many punishments for doing so if the truth we choose to speak offends the sensibilities of those around us.
   How can we say what is in our heart without offending others? One of the gifts I’ve received through my fiction writing is the luxury of speaking through the characters I create. It’s not me saying all those offensive things, it’s the characters. I find the experience very therapeutic.
Blake_angels
   This is not a luxury we have with those around us. Living Love calls us to communicate with compassion for others.
   It’s a continual confusion to me that some of the greatest lovers in history, including Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, poet Robert Frost, and Mother Theresa, each experienced difficulty in their personal communications. Can it be that their sensitivities to the world were so great that they found it difficult to communicate sensitively with the people close to them? Blake believed he saw angels. Was it a mistake for him to tell the truth about what he was seeing?
   Sensitivity to the world means we are continually risking the bruises that come when our hearts are open. I don’t have an easy answer to this challenge. Perhaps, we are all too interested in having our cake and eating it too. We want to open our hearts but never want to be hurt. But if we close our hearts, we will seal ourselves off from the breath of the world.
   How do you tell your truth to the world? What do you do with the truth you don’t speak, the truth that lives within you?

-Erie Chapman

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4 responses to “Day 142 – Telling the Truth”

  1. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    Thanks for sharing Blake’s paintings I am very much taken in by the two illumined angels. They seem to join hands in prayerful reverence.
    I think judgment closes doors and creates barriers between people. I have a close friend, Marlyn, who is a very candid person. She does not screen or edit her thoughts and feelings with me. We talk often; sometimes what we share surprises me. We don’t wear masks, I’ve witnessed the depths of her pain and she mine. I think we are the best of friends because we know each other and there is no judgment.
    A true friend leaves the back door open.

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  2. Yvonne Ginez-Gonzales Avatar
    Yvonne Ginez-Gonzales

    When I think about telling the truth, I think about the phrase “constructive criticism”. It is a phrase or term that most of us are familiar with that we may or may not encounter everyday in our own work environment, an educational setting (like for myself, being a current student), and/or even with your own children when reviewing their homework. I find that there is not only an expectation of honesty and truth in constructive criticism, but also there is the expectation that the person giving this criticism has a compassionate attitude towards the person. I believe that the giver of this type of communication should utilize their higher experiences, gifts, respect and knowledge in a specific field to provide healthy intentions of lifting up the receiver morally, emotionally or spiritually. I believe that constructive criticism also relies on a healthy relationship. If the relationship is healthy the receiver will most often welcome this type of communication for growth. However, if the relationship is not healthy the receiver may interpret the criticism as an attack. This is how I have learned to use one type of truth in my life. I feel that if I can master this one type of communication that I will always be known, like Liz’s posting stated this morning, as a person who leaves the back door open.

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  3. Lorilee Amlie Avatar
    Lorilee Amlie

    I agree with Yvonne, constructive criticism is supposed to be truth that we should use to grow. But to tell the truth, it hurts sometimes. But that’s hearing someone else’s truth, it doesn’t neccessarily have to be my truth, does it?

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  4. Karen York Avatar
    Karen York

    Wow – your last questions run deep. Telling my truth to the world comes through my actions, whether kind or unkind. I may run ahead to hold open a door for a mom struggling with a stroller and diaper bag, or I may cut someone off in traffic. How I feed my heart and soul lives in my actions and my truth will become apparent to those around me.
    The truth I don’t speak or share with others is the more difficult. There are deep secrets that I am afraid to be known. There are elements of conversation in which I won’t engage because my truth differs from someone else. Cowardly, I know. I am reminded of these lines from Rilke that someone very dear to me sent me upon his first meeting with me. He sensed in me perhaps a hesitancy to share all that is in my heart.
    I want to free what waits within me/so that what no one has dared to wish for/may for once spring clear/without my contriving…/May what I do flow from me like a river,/no forcing and no holding back,/the way it is with children.

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