Journal of Sacred Work

   "I appreciate the variations in today's teachings and comments…"  Victoria Facey

   I've never met Victoria Facey. But, this woman has been kind enough to share her comments here in the Journal on a regular basis. She is clearly a woman with an open heart and a beautiful and compassionate spirit. When she says she appreciates the teachings of the Journal, it tells me that she has an open and caring heart.
   It has been my good fortune to encounter many kind and open hearts across thirty-three years in health care. Often, in these columns, I rant about what's wrong with health care. I complain that more of us need to learn how to live Love, not fear. The truth is, so many people in caregiving are sweet, wonderful and strong individuals who commit their lives to serving others in need.

   A couple days ago my wife of forty-two years delivered an advance birthday gift of priceless value. It is a one hour DVD that features people I have worked with starting in 1968. Caregiver after caregiver appears on the screen talking about the best memories they have of the time we served together. People like former Chief Nursing Officer Marian Hamm, who I began working with in 1975, come on the screen to talk of fond memories of working in two different hospitals together. Steve Garlock (above left) president of Grady Memorial Hospital, talks about leadership lessons gleaned over a quarter century of partnership.  It is a rich tapestry prompted by a simple request to recall favorite recollections of shared time.
   The most affirming quality of the film is the degree to which these people seem grateful to me for affirming something in them some wonderful quality they had not seen in themselves. Of course, all I did was to mirror back to them something about them that seemed bright and beautiful.
   It seems very likely that if a similar video were produced for YOU there would be similar comments. Ask a fellow worker from years ago their best memory of you and I'll bet they would say something that would surprise you – some small incident that affirmed to them your own beautiful humanity.
   When we recognize and celebrate the divine in someone else, it raises the light in us as well. You have created rich memories for so many people with your own heart. Because of my wife's thoughtfulness, I just happened to be lucky enough to see some of those memories played back.
   Give yourself this gift by playing back the things you remember best about someone you worked with. And then play back, all by yourself, the nicest things you think they would say about you.

-Erie Chapman