Days 187-191 – Divine Magic – Journal of Sacred Work

Today, in Sherborne, Massachusetts, the divine dawn breaks both night's hold and my heart. The May light sews a hundred gold scarves & tosses them into the woods lassoing the grateful necks of every oak. One scarf dresses a female gingko in pale chiffon dotted with shape-shifting shadows. Near the hem of the 19th century home of landscape genius Frederick Law Olmsted (creator of Central Park), the same sun trims the tips of a choir of Bleeding Hearts.

This is magic. This is joy. It is painful. All loving care is like this.

Why must love demand so much of us? Why can't we limit love's divine magic so that it is all joy and no sorrow?

The key to our humanity is secreted in this conundrum. In the new land of artificial intelligence scientists create robots that do fantastical things. One thing robots will not experience is suffering. What inventor would program that awful feeling into a machine? Neither will anyone be able to conjure compassion into computers that are, by definition, heartless.

Robots can only mimic. "The ability to care is the hallmark of the human, the touchstone of morality and the ground of holiness," John O'Donohue wrote. "Without the warmth of care, the world becomes a graveyard. In the kindness of care, the divine comes alive in us."

At his fourth birthday my youngest grandson coughed. Glancing around the table he announced, "Hey everyone, the Birthday Boy coughed." In that divinely funny moment, he felt regal & so did we. What he knew is that we cared. What we all felt was the magic of the divine.

Today is his fifth birthday. He still embraces magic. May he discover, as an adult, that love's magic is divine.

-Erie Chapman

Photograph, "Olmsted's Bleeding Hearts" by Erie

Published by

swiftlyunabashed93c6d9b23b

Categories: Reflections, Holidays, Spirituality

Tags: caregivers, Erie Chapman, Frederick Law Olmsted, John O’Donohue, magic, the divine

8 responses to “Days 187-191 – Divine Magic”

~liz Wessel

May 25, 2015 at 10:45 am

The images you paint for us, Erie are filled with love’s light as they stream warmth into our beings on this cool grey California morning. What a joy for your grandson to be surrounded in the love and care of his family. Thank you for sharing the divine magic of the moment and for extending these blessings.

LikeLike

Reply
Anne Milligan

May 25, 2015 at 12:49 pm

This is so wonderful Erie… your words and the images, and your heart. Thanks so much for sharing all these gems…

LikeLike

Reply
JVD

May 25, 2015 at 5:56 pm

I came across two quotes which ran true to today’s reflection.
“I’ve always believed in numbers. In the equations and logics that lead to reason. But after a lifetime of such pursuits, I ask, what truly is logic? Who decides reason? My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional, and back — and I have made the most important discovery of my career — the most important discovery of my life: It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found.” John Forbes Nash, Jr. (He and his wife tragically died in a car crash this weekend)
“Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.” Nikola Tesla.
A robot is the sum of someone’s numbers. But the Divine is infinite.
We can make a life-like android. Yet, the love of a teddy bear is incomparable.
The joy of a birthday celebration.
The ability to see beauty in a photograph.
As a child we experience this magic of imagination.
And as an adult we re-experience it in pure love.
Thank you, Erie, for today’s insight. And Happy Birthday to your grandson.

LikeLike

Reply
Anonymous

May 25, 2015 at 6:44 pm

Erie: I watched the Memorial Day celebration yesterday. I am amazed at the number of testimonies given and also by the wounded veterans who survived but is still incapacitated with bone or nervous system injuries. With valor each gave their lives and commitment to the important causes and fought valiantly. Today they live with the care and support of their spouses, family members and those who are in the Health care professionals etc. The spirit of the divine love of those who cares with patience and forbearance bring the spark and strength to each veteran to etch forward and heal. What each veteran knew is we cared, what we all felt was the magic of the divine. God Bless America and Happy Birthday to your grandson Erie. He is being loved so much. sbeng.

LikeLike

Reply
erie chapman

May 26, 2015 at 10:20 am

Thank you for your comments, Liz. My grandson is a very, very easy child to love: beautiful, charming, smart and funny – and also able to blow off roof tops when he is angry. You have these gifts also with your sweet grandkids.

LikeLike

Reply
erie chapman

May 26, 2015 at 10:20 am

Thank you, Anne. You paint such remarkable images of your own!

LikeLike

Reply
erie chapman

May 26, 2015 at 10:23 am

Thank you for both searing quotes and for your own exceptional poem, JVD. Nash’s death, and that of his wife, are such a hard tragedy. Perhaps, he answers that why with his own comment: “It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found.” For there is surely no logic in the way that he left this world.

LikeLike

Reply
Terry Chapman

May 26, 2017 at 4:30 am

Well said Chip! We must always celebrate our lives on Earth by thanking God and those who serve to protect us: veterans, firemen, police. To do anything less, would be to detract from their sacrifices, all the love they share, and leave only the pain and daily challenges they continue face, day after day after year!

LikeLike

Reply