Journal of Sacred Work

   The early impressionist painters taught us to see differently – that the world is not clearly defined as the realists painters portrayed it. 

   Unintentionally, they taught us much more. Everything we experience is filtered by the lens of our unique world view. 

   An ophthalmologist may see your eyes as in need of examination. A poet might like to write about them. An artist sees them as a painting. 

   A step beyond impressionism is abstract art. An artist may name a blob of paint on a canvas, "Tree." Such abstract art frustrates many.

   Different kinds of painting call viewers to work harder to appreciate art. 

   Different kinds of patients call caregivers to the same kind of commitment.

   An articulate & appreciative patient is a caregiver's delight – a realist painting easy to understand. An Alzheimer's patient may seem like only an impression of a former self. A patient distorted by the horrors of a fire may seem like an abstraction of a human.

   Healing is a grand abstract painting. It is as hard to define as love & just as worthy of the commitment it takes to achieve it. 

-Erie Chapman

Photograph by Erie