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 247 – Loving Friendship

   A friend has come to me over the past few days to share a terrible loss in his life. As I have sat with him, I have wondered about what kind of loving presence might ease his suffering.
   There are those who believe that our role in such situations is to be presence, but to understand that we cannot take the suffering away, we can only make it a bit more tolerable. Suffering, in this way of thinking, is a required part of our walk with Love.
   As I was contemplating this, one of our regular commentators, Karen York from Alive Hospice in Nashville, sent me these beautiful words from a poem by Hafiz called "Beautiful Hands":

This is the kind of friend
you are –
Without making me realize
my soul’s anguished history,
you slip into my house at night,
and while I am sleeping
you silently carry off
all my suffering and sordid past
in your beautiful
hands.

   How joyful to imagine that Love can have such power.

-Erie Chapman

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4 responses to “Day 247 – Loving Friendship”

  1. Karen York Avatar
    Karen York

    Thank you for including this poem today. We all seek acceptance and are afraid of being banished or shunned should our “sordid past” become known. Love accepts all, bears all, endures all, cleanses all and never leaves behind a speck of guilt or shame.

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  2. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    When one is in the alienating depths of suffering and loss the Holy presence of another is comforting because of the unspoken message, “you are not alone, I will not abandon you, I am here, and you are loved.” The miracle of loving friendship is that it continues to expand out offering gifts to others who may be near or far.

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  3. Victoria Facey Avatar
    Victoria Facey

    What a caring and loving poem…

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  4. Yvonne Ginez-Gonzales Avatar
    Yvonne Ginez-Gonzales

    I loved the expression of having our soul carried off with loving hands when our time ends. Yet when we are at the bedside it is the presence of loving hands that are brought to the patient’s soul to care for them with caring, compassionate, and sometimes the comfort and warmth of hands of just gentle touch regardless of history, disease, religion, etc… I feel blessed that I have been able to use the most simple concept of touch as a way to express my presence with a patient and or their family when they have needed it most.

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