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 210 – First Encounters

Tyler
   The key moment happened at 7:56 a.m., July 28, 1968. Down the hallway from this moment, I lay back, eyes closed, catching a little rest after being with my wife all night in the hospital. I was alone. It was a time (at least in Toledo, Ohio) before doctors allowed fathers into the delivery room.
   Nurse’s shoes brushed the floor to my left, soft as an Indian stalking game. The next sentence I heard will always endure in my memory: "Mr. Chapman, would you like to meet your son?"
   As you read this story, you must have instantly thought back to your own, initial sacred encounters. Perhaps the first time you saw your spouse or your newborn; your first kiss, the first time you met someone who is now your best friend.   
   What’s striking is that I feel confident that the caregiver who held my son that bright Sunday morning in 1968 had a very different experience than did I. Although the nurse was very nice, I doubt that this was a sacred moment for her. She was a witness to a father’s encounter with a special being (above left) who turns forty today. But she must have been present for hundreds of such encounters. How could each of them be sacred? And yet, they can.
   Moments of birth and death, suffering and joy always hold the potential to be sacred for caregivers who choose loving presence.
   What I could not see in 1968, I have seen since that day: thousands of special moments with the only person in the world I can call my son. He is a special and sacred being – even more special to me today than when we encountered each other for the first time. I not only love him. I am grateful for the fact that he is such a kind, loving and gifted human being who is now, himself, a father who was able to celebrate his own first encounter with his son at the moment of his son’s birth.
   What we learn from any sacred encounter is how to live any moment in a sacred way. What is it about your first encounters that made them special and how does this help you as a caregiver?

-Erie Chapman

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2 responses to “Day 210 – First Encounters”

  1. Karen York Avatar
    Karen York

    Wow, such a handsome young man bearing a striking resemblance to his father. First encounters – the sacred ones – bring with them all the expectation and electric energy to make us glad we’re alive, and perhaps, keep us going through the not so sacred times. Several from my childhood pop into my mind – first horse back ride, first ride on the Matterhorn at Disneyland, first holding hands with Paul, first jump off the high dive. Of course, I have had many many more in my adult life, namely meeting my own daughters for the first time in the delivery room, saying goodbye to my grandmother, and still riding roller coasters with as much fright and excitement as the first time. I believe one of the ways we remain engaged in this world and give extra special care to each other is to live with eyes of a young child, or a visitor from another place. Everything is new and exciting, full of hope and splendor. Our routines often prevent us from seeing the spectacular in our own back yard. I am hopeful we will see our world with new eyes today and look upon each encounter as a possibility of being sacred.

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  2. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    Karen, I love your expressions about sacred encounters and your hope for us today.
    I can only imagine the loving adoration, promise and great joy that shone on your parents faces as they first set eyes on you, Tyler. Their hopes and dreams for you have grown full in gratefulness and thanksgiving. New beginnings and endings unfold in a circle of unending love.
    For encounters to be sacred I think we must let go of the notion of sacrifice. That somehow we are giving up something in order to offer Loving service. In the sacred there really is no difference between the giving and receiving as the giver and receiver are equal and what I give I receive in love’s expanding abundance. If I desire to heal I need only accept the gift that is offered to heal and then share that gift of healing with others.

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