Journal of Sacred Work

   Love teaches relationships. Since our divine and human natures tangle within us in confusing ways, we need help.

   Women understand relationships. They learn early and it is that feminine energy from which men must discover the nature of Love.  

   With the powerful exception of my father, my earliest years were dominated by feminine energy. Sandwiched by birth between two lovely sisters (above left), I was also raised by a sweet mother who seemed always present.

   Even my best friend was a girl. Jill Bloksgaard (nee Rutkin) was a natural athlete (with me, below, in 1951). By the time we were about six, other boys started teasing me about playing with a girl.

   I launched the perfect defense: "She's not a girl, she's a tomboy," I pronounced to a peer. "Good point," he agreed.

   Around the time of the photo I remember having a silly argument with Jill about who was better, boys or girls. Losing ground, I suddenly fired what I thought would be the winning shot, "Jesus was a boy!" I proclaimed.

   Undaunted Jill said, "Right. Born from a woman!"

   Six decades later, Jill and I remain friends. With her fine balance of intelligence, talent and femininity, she has been a compassionate caregiver to both animals and people all of her life.  

   At least seventy-five percent of America's professional caregivers are women. Hospitals, nursing homes and hospices are staffed primarily by women. In fact, based on posted comments, it would appear that over ninety percent of the Journal's readers are females!

   Although eighty percent of hospitals are lead by men, women dominate direct caregiving. Why?

   Is it because our mothers are our first caregivers?

   Feminine energy, flowing through man or woman, is kind. Male energy, burning through woman or man, is aggressive. 

   It's Mother Nature and Mother Earth not Father. Spring is feminine (although its thunder is masculine.) 

   In both a geometric and natural sense, I think of female energy as round and male energy as straight-edged. Beauty, often expressed artistically by men, is curved and feminine. War is masculine. 

   Kahlil Gibran wrote, "A woman whom Providence has provided with beauty of spirit and body is a truth, at the same time both open and secret, which we understand only by love…and when we attempt to describe such a woman she disappears like a vapor."

   This is the essence of Love. It can be lived but not described.

   Male energy battles disease. Feminine energy offers the compassion suffering desires.  

   To argue that one  energy is better than the other is as foolish as the childhood argument Jill and I had so long ago.  What both caregiving and the world need, of course, is the right balance of female and male energy.

   This is what Jesus embodied. The male energy to advance his message against savage attack surged through his worldly body.

   Simultaneously, Jesus possessed a vast feminine energy which enabled him to shape Love's message with language as soft and round as Peace. 

-Reverend Erie Chapman