It's one of the most rare and exciting plays in baseball. Players steal bases all the time. But, stealing home? The last time a member of the Boston Red Sox did it was in 1994. I've never seen it happen live. So, it came as a special treat for fans to watch the gifted left fielder, Jacoby Ellsbury, pull off the magic trick against the Red Sox arch rival, the New York Yankees.
If you're not a baseball fan, you may be asking two questions already: So what? and, What does this have to do with caregiving?
For a brief time during the game on Sunday evening, I forgot that the next day was Monday. I forgot that my everyday work involves helping charities that deal with the worst kind of human suffering. The Baptist Healing Trust supports organizations that care for people at their best and their worst. Alienated teenagers seek shelter at the Oasis Center. Wives pummeled and terrorized by their husbands escape to the love and shelter provided by the YWCA. Prostitutes struggling to rise about their drug addiction enter the open arms of Magdalene. The terminally ill find themselves surrounded by love at Alive Hospice.
Who cares about the glory of a baseball player and his team as they leap in celebration over an uncommon accomplishment, the torch of their victory held high? For awhile, and into Monday morning, I did. And I felt better knowing that I had seen poetry in motion in the form of a man racing toward home, and arriving safely.
What are the pastimes that bring you joy and relief?
Here is a poem for you.
April's Seven O'clock Sun
I was searching
for a torch
to lead me
through the night
forest when I
brushed a stand
of bamboo huddling
close, each already lit,
a 19th century crowd
gathered to hail
the prince of evening,
each one struggling,
like me, to hold high
their fading flame.
-Erie Chapman
[photo of Jacoby Ellsbury by Matthew J. Lee, Getty Images]
Journal of Sacred Work 
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