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 and 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 and 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 317-318 – “Trails of Words & Music”

Path 1    "Maybe it's true that we all scatter trails of words and music that are embedded in our footprints. That dream-tracks cover the land, are woven through waves like a map to find our way home. And maybe there's nothing: no tiny grains of sand, no rock, leaf or the smallest trickle of water that can't be sung."" – Ellen Kort – Sea Turtle (1995)

   We never know, do we? We can never discover what our "trail of words and music" has meant in the lives of others.

   Perhaps, what matters most is not what we know, but what we believe is meaningful for each of us. As I read Kort's words, I thought about the trail you, as a caregiver, travel each day as you go about your sacred work.

   What is the question you ask yourself each morning? Do you rise with a "Yes" to the world? Or do you discover that you have fallen into a pattern that says "No" to your own life – over and over and over?

   It's remarkably difficult for each of us to truly grow more alive each day. The comfort of routines can take us hostage.

   I have spoken to many who, upon reaching the end of their careers, discover that they've been sleep walking through their jobs, mindlessly repeating tiresome tasks while counting the years, months, weeks and days until retirement.

   Within a few months of retirement, lot of these folks discover disappointment. They enter a season of regret for all the years when they chose "No" to their lives instead of rising each day with a resounding "Yes" to their world.

   The path of our lives is, Kort writes,  "woven through waves like a map to find our way home." Do you know where "home" is for you? When you arrive there, will you be able to lean into the center of your heart with a sense of knowing that you have truly lived Love?

-Erie Chapman   

*photo by Erie Chapman

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7 responses to “Days 317-318 – “Trails of Words & Music””

  1. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    What lovely images to companion us through our days. I wish to carry these questions with me, take them out of my pocket time and again, to and sift through thoughtfully, reverently. They are especially meaningful to me at this point in my life, becoming at home within myself, opening to life with a resounding yes! Thank you for these lovely pearls, Erie.

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  2. candace nagle Avatar
    candace nagle

    This morning I awoke to an amazing sunrise and felt a resounding “yes!” for this day. But that is not always the case. Having friends like you and Liz, help to remind me to look for the Yes behind the automatic No’s that arrive uninvited some mornings. We couldn’t travel this path without each other. God Bless you, Erie.

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  3. Dea DeWitt Avatar
    Dea DeWitt

    Hi Erie,
    This is a wonderful resource and reflection! I am currently working in the healthcare field as a chaplain and have some specific ministries at my hospital to staff where just this sort of meditation will help in our weekly time together. Keep up the blessed work, and may God pour blessings upon you for it!
    Dea+

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  4. Maria Doglio Avatar
    Maria Doglio

    This is a wonderful contemplative piece. Thank you Erie. We all get off center as we hit against life’s circumstances. If we try out best to stay “in tune” with our heart center so that we become conscious when the “comfortable routines” of our lives become “uncomfortable routines”, we can then embark on an inner journey to find where our path needs to turn to retain the quality of life. I think life offers many down times that really are pathways to transition—I am becoming aware that when I get grumpy and frustrated with the routine of my life, I am really starting to stand at the threshold of change, so I try to pay attention to it. What has changed and what am I wanting now? As we lean into the center of our heart while we are feeling this way, we find our way to the “knowing” that brings us back on the path of a fulfilling life. Love is always at the center.

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  5. xavier espinosa Avatar
    xavier espinosa

    Do we become our job? Is Our Work becoming to us? I believe that these questions are more than a matter of semantics. They pose challenging queries into how we see our future beyond what we do to earn a living.
    Our Work is the evolution of our path to being better and to being “In Wisdom”. Better coworkers, better people, better at what makes us someone that people look forward to seeing because everything that we represent is covered with integrity. “Does my Work make me better?” “Does my Work allow me to grow?” “Is my Work in keeping with my vision?” “Am I proud of my Work?” “Do I love my Work?” “Do I demonstrate the love for my Work in such a way that others are cognizant of it?” “Is my Work becoming to me?”
    The job can become an insidious process of predictable algorithms of repetitive, many times unappreciated chores that contribute to the ennui that breeds complacency, boredom and apathy. These many times can comprise the elements in the root cause of mistakes and neglect. Apathy is in direct contradiction to the beauty of this repository of wisdom, which works to enlighten so that we become cognizant of our capabilities and responsive so that we help others to grow within the concept of the Sacred Encounter.
    So it becomes incumbent on all of us to seek opportunities to welcome the new, to take risks, to make mistakes, to learn so that we are able to bring freshness to what we do because it allows us to apply the learning to our job. When we refresh our job- we are better able to do our Work. It is what binds us to our commitment to be proud of what we do for a living.
    Every experience is a thread. Some are fine, others rough-hewn; each with different strength and elasticity. These threads weave into every aspect of our being; they are the woof and warp of our human existence. It is the beauty of the cloth that others marvel at when our job and Work are entwined; and what is missed most when we take our Work elsewhere, either into retirement or the next stage of our life and career. This is what prevents the coldness of inactivity and boredom from chilling our non job life because our Work continues.
    Carol King wrote:” My life has been a tapestry Of rich and royal hue; An everlasting vision Of the ever-changing view; A wond’rous woven magic In bits of blue and gold; A tapestry to feel and see; Impossible to hold.”
    Our life doesn’t end when the job is over, why should the weaving?

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  6. Marily Avatar
    Marily

    “To truly grow more alive each day”, is what we aim for… people we encounter, reminder of the presents we are given. Listening could mean, nothing is wasted even when your precious minute just passed. My time can be yours too. Together we walk, we share the joys and surprises, as well as the sorrows and the pain we can handle. We are blessed, we have each other now.

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  7. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    Yes, to begin each day with a beginners mind.

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