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 & 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 & 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 122-126 – Night

   Shadows stripe the stories we tell ourselves in the middle of the night. 

   Night's moon and stars can soft-brush harsh daytime images.

   Just as often, stories harmless in daylight can attack at 2 a.m. like hell hounds. 

   When I was seven I dreamt that my father had died and everything was up to me. At the same age, another dream cast me as eighty-four with only a few months to live.

   Awakening from dream's different realities usually brings relief, although this was not so for Dr. Victor Frankl during his years in a concentration camp. When a fellow inmate cried out in the middle of a nightmare, Frankl declined to awaken him because their reality was worse than a nightmare.

   In any case, upon awakening from death dreams, we quickly return to our amnesia about our own passing.

   Caregivers can ease patients night-fed anxieties.

   One dark hour at Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, Florida brought a wife the news that her husband had only moments to live.

   "He always loved 'Amazing Grace,'" his wife told a nurse.

   Disappearing, the nurse gathered every staff member she could recruit.

   A circle that included another nurse, a housekeeper and a unit clerk formed around the patient's bed. Singing Love's music, they comforted him out of this world. 

   The night can be an intruder. The night can also bring amazing grace.

-Erie Chapman 

 

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4 responses to “Days 122-126 – Night”

  1. candace nagle Avatar
    candace nagle

    When I was 18 years old I had my first job in a nursing home as an aid. This is where I met Mortimer. He was 106 years old and spent all of his time on this earth sleeping except for two 10 minute sessions up to the bathroom. While on the commode, we would place a glass of buttermilk in his hand and he would bottoms up it. Always, after his buttermilk, he would look around himself in what appeared to be disbelief, and he would say over and over, “Let me out of this dream! Let me out of this dream!” Even at 18 I knew he was more ‘there’ than ‘here’ and, though I felt sadness for Mortimer who was stuck here in his body, I felt hopeful that truly this life is but a dream.

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  2. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    I guess in the quiet of night, absent distractions of the day; worries can sometimes intensify beyond rationale thought. Physical pain worsens too. As a child, I remember being ill with streph throat, fever and pain. I laid in bed waiting the long night out, wishing for the break of day when the house would awaken and my mother would come to me.
    The dreams you shared are quite profound for a seven year old, Erie. I don’t remember as much of my dreams as I would like but I appreciate their messages. Our dreams seem to want to help us work through struggles; whatever we are grappling with at the time. Occasionally, when there is a big concern in my life I receive a very poignant dream with symbolic spiritual wisdom; I recognize and I am grateful for the significance of their gift.
    The moment you describe of amazing grace is one of everlasting Love. Thank you.

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  3. Karen York Avatar
    Karen York

    Whyte speaks of sweet darkness as a place where “you can be sure you are not beyond love…for the night will give you a horizon further than you can see…” The night or darkness, most certainly can be limiting and frightening, yet when we adjust to it and settle into it, new possibilities open that are not visible during the daylight. It’s all in the letting go – like so many of life’s important lessons.

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  4. marily Avatar
    marily

    “The night can be an intruder. The night can also bring amazing grace”. Though there’s lots of truth in the first sentence not only in a caregiver’s life when we face the reality of sundown syndrome, I would like to remember even in times like these… there’s always the promise of a bright new day. As we walk through the night of terror, consider it as just a passing moment, that beyond the confusion and irritable being is somebody special who is loved too.

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