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 217 – Caregiver Creativity

August 4, 2008

"…the sound and the fury of an individual’s creative life are the elemental waters missing from the dehydrated workday." – David Whyte

"What would happen if you and I were flying through the clouds on a magic carpet and we started to fall?" I asked my four-year-old grandson recently. "A Power Ranger would jump out and save us," he answered instantly (and with complete confidence.)
Children possess the genius of imagination. Free of the constraints of ordinary reality, they can concoct lovely and honest answers to complicated questions.
It’s easy and popular to blame our work settings and our supervisors for "dehydrating" our creative powers. Perhaps it’s time for us to take some accountability for restoring our imagination and applying it in the workplace as a tool for healing.
Why wait for the latest version of some clunky strategic plan to stumble down the hallway from the executive offices? Caregivers are the ones positioned to heal patients and clients, not executives.
"Contained fire is the vital force that we direct to accomplish firstly a task, but more importantly, a way of being," David Whyte writes in his seminal work, The Heart Aroused.
How do we stir the embers of our "contained fire" awakening their heat and light for healing?…

True healers have a "way of being" in the world. In some cases, they have worked hard to burnish their gift of presence to this world. Invariably, they have experienced pains and hardships of their own and have remained so much in touch with their personal trials that they can connect with the troubles of another.
The first step in creative caregiving is to hear the needs of the other. This exquisite gift is the foundation for all the acts which may follow.
Exceptional caregivers tune their hearts to the pain of their patients. They follow up by releasing their "contained fire" where it is needed. They use the tools of caregiving: drugs or surgery where those are indicated; warmth and kindness through eyes and hands. Of equal significance, great caregivers know when to ease back to give the patient room to self-heal. Touch and kind words can sometimes feel like an intrusion to a patient engaged in a powerful interior dialogue.
If healers sometimes seem charismatic, it is because they have become channels for Love’s light. How do you channel Love’s energy in your own caregiving work?

-Erie Chapman

Posted in Meditations

7 responses to “Day 217 – Caregiver Creativity”

~liz Wessel

August 4, 2008

I am off to an encouraging start when I can approach my work with an open heart and a beginners mind. It helps to let go of preconceived notions, thoughts, and assumptions that can stifle new ways of looking and being. As I ask for help in adjusting the lens of my world view, I realize I don’t need to be the expert with all the answers and when I allow time for reflection, answers begin to take shape and manifest seemingly without effort. When my heart is open, I am likely to include others in creative problem solving, tapping into their strengths, which leads to better quality decisions. Are all my days like this? No, yet each day is a new beginning to be receptive and invite Love in and to ask for guidance.
I am a channel of Love’s energy when I see the Light within you and recognize the goodness that has always been there. This requires a heart free of criticism and condemning judgments, one that offers Loving acceptance. I believe healing occurs in relationship, when I reach for your hand to discover truth and forgiveness, Love’s light enters. For one cannot heal without the other and what I see in thee, so shall I be.

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MELISSA SCOTT

August 4, 2008

This blog remindes me of this movie I saw, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The man in the movie is rich and well known/liked, he has a stroke one day while he’s with his son. He doesn’t recover and then has locked in syndrome. He can only communicate through the blinking of one eye. He goes through many speech therapy visits and he never accomplishes speech, but he can eventually sing(w/out words). Your blog remindes me of him because even though he was well liked and widley known he lost it all to gain an infinite imagination. Which aided him in writing a book through the communication of blinks. I think of him as so free even though he was trapped in his body. His mind was limitless!

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Victoria Facey

August 4, 2008

Melissa, I appreciate that film much more after reading your response. Although I believe the lead character was finally happy to be free, he was able to share his(true)story with others.

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Yvonne Ginez-Gonzales

August 4, 2008

I try to use humor at times to channel my energy in the caregiving that I give. It needs to be unexpected and free flowing. I find that some families don’t feel that they can have moments of laughter because of the idea of disrepecting their loved one when they are sick or at end-of-life. There have been times after my services as a caregiver have no longer been required that I have had loved ones send me a card and or in conversation express their thanks for either making an uncomfortable situation more bearable and or in someway giving them unspoken permission to laugh. I don’t believe we take enough time in our lives to use laughter as therapy. Just think as it as a behavior that gives twice: one to your patient and one to you. Now that is living.

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~liz Wessel

August 4, 2008

I guess I am feeling nostalgic as I return to the beginnings of the Journal to read previous meditations. I came across this Lovely poem and return as a swallow to share its beauty with you.
Today is the only day you have & now is your only chance
to let Love stream through you into the eyes & hearts &
souls of strangers.
Today, as the stars hide above the shrouded sun & beaded
curtains of rain sweep the high mountains clean &
a solitary swallow arrows over the tiled roof of an old
Spanish Mission, you remember your mission.
Where is your heart today? Will you unwrap its gifts?
Will the love that moves the sun and the others stars
move through you before today’s light leaves the sky?
By ~Erie Chapman

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~liz Wessel

August 4, 2008

I really appreciate your comment Yvonne and what comes to mind is another movie! This time the scene is from Steele Magnolias when Sally Field’s character is with her friends at the cemetery. She is expressing her intense grief when one of her friends does something so outlandish that it is hysterically funny. Ah, how humor can heal in the most difficult of times!

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MFM

August 5, 2008

Like Yvonne I believe in laughter and smiles. 🙂 A quick witty remark or a smile can make even the most uncomfortable situation bearable.
Liz, Thank you for sharing the poem, it reminded me how important it is to be present in every moment. There are no guarantees of tomorrow so we need to make the most out of life today.

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