"What if what we create becomes a constant companion for someone else." – Minton Sparks
Minton Sparks, internationally known as one of the world's finest spoken word artists, lives quietly in Nashville under another name. "Maybe my alias gives me more freedom to create without worrying what some others might think," she told me recently.
Minton is a member of my church. Before we met, I had heard of her work. She was a friend not yet seen.
If you order any of her books, records, or DVDs (www.mintonsparks.com) she will also become your friend unseen (unless you are lucky enough to see one of her shows.)
Liz Wessel and Minton have more close friends than anyone I know. Some of Liz's friends comment in the Journal. Their Love for her is evident. Clearly, she has become "a constant companion" in the lives of many others as well. In fact, many of her friends like Victoria Facey and others I've never met, feel like friends of mine because of the Journal.
Similarly, Minton brings her light, her wit, and her abiding Love to her many dear friends. She is also, through her published work, a lit presence in the lives of thousands she will never met.
In the weekend Journal, Liz wrote: "We can choose to live in ways that will benefit all of humanity, or not."
Each of you benefit friends seen and unseen. Because of your loving care, those you don't recall or don't know may think of you as their friend.
"We've never crossed paths, but I feel like we're friends," one woman from an Indiana hospital wrote me recently after listening to the audio version of one of my books, Radical Loving Care. "I remember the years you led Riverside Methodist as a time of Camelot," a nurse wrote me a few months ago. Every time I hear your "Blessed Baby" song I remember the birth of our child," another wrote. These are unseen friends I treasure. And similar notes could and should be coming to you.
Caregivers bring relief to unnumbered people every day. When we toss light into the world it ignites a Love that may endure as a "constant companion" to others. In this sense, all of us are caregivers.
The funny little cartoon mouse named Mickey, created from the heart of one man, illuminates the lives of hundreds of millions. Poet Emily Dickinson was a person of few friends during her life.
"This is my letter to the world,/ That never wrote to me,–" Dickinson wrote. Only seven of her poems were published while she lived. Fifteen hundred more were found after her passing. Since her death, her Beauty has touched the lives of tens of millions – all unseen friends who carry her gifts in their hearts.
Our friends are so often our caregivers, healing our hearts and brightening our lives. May we always do the same for them – whether seen or unseen.
-Reverend Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
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