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.

Days 252-253 – Quiet Desperation?

Thoreau_2
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. – Henry David Thoreau (1854)

   I encountered Thoreau, as have many others, through his book,
Walden. It came into my hands in my early schooling. Reading it, I fell
to day day-dreaming about the idyllic life I imagined Thoreau had led
as he retreated from society to live beside a pond in the woods. How
many of us have imagined such an existence? How tempting it seems to
run from the noise of the world into a setting filled with bird songs,
the rhythmic lap of a lake kissing the shore, the wide sky as ceiling.
   
In his extensive ruminations, Thoreau offers his seering insight about
our lives of "quiet desperation." His words often haunt me as I struggle
with my own, periodic sense of loneliness and alienation from a world
where I often feel completely out of place.
Thoreau_quote
   Does "quiet desperation" describe the lives of all thoughtful
people? Do we all secretly feel we are headed to our graves with our song still
trapped within? How about you, as a caregiver? How do you feel?

-Erie Chapman

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2 responses to “Days 252-253 – Quiet Desperation?”

  1. Karen York Avatar
    Karen York

    I feel alot like you described. Maybe my song isn’t trapped inside me, but has been altered. My original tune is out there, to be heard or to be drowned out by other noise. Hardships and joys add the high notes and the deep bass harmony to my simple melody. Sometimes I don’t recognize it as my song because I gave too much of it away. The thing about living is to maintain the courage to keep singing the song, even when we feel no one hears or even cares. In truth, more people care than we realize and are begging us to remain true to who we are. They are there with their arms wide open to hold us when we are ready to come out of our quiet desperation.

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  2. alisa shackelford Avatar
    alisa shackelford

    Thank you for sharing this Erie…it is odd to read that you feel at times “…in a world out of place…” Despite that, you are nonetheless a beacon to others. You have chosen a path and actively “Walk” it in leadership that is a bit rare in these days and times yet is quite visionary….in the past you demonstrated a unique and far reaching successful healing leadership in a very large health system that is now “in vogue” some 20 years later – I look forward to the day when Healing Hospitals are the “norm” so to speak not the exception.
    Carpe Diem & thank you.

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