Note: This reflection is offered by Liz Sorensen Wessel to celebrate Erie Chapman; a man with a brilliant mind, sensitive heart & creative spirit. What better way to honor the Beauty of his soul than to share a few of Erie’s own thoughts and words.

"Some of our most beautiful secrets are unknown even to us."

As a child I lay on my bed while
My mother fluttered just-cleaned sheets..
“They’re like parachutes falling from the clouds,”
she said.

In the Sanctuary
You live inside
a sacred mist
where only the eyes
of the heart
can see

Give up
your expectations
for others.
Does it help for you to suppose others
Will fit the mold you have crafted for them?
Embrace them now as they are and they become
Someone to love.

Today you become a guest at your own table of Thanksgiving
Sit with all your different shaped shadows.
Celebrate each with open arms.
Pick one to revisit awhile.
There they are-all your gifts, all your best angels, all your beautiful shadows carved
From light and gathered in the circle of your love.
Come, rest rejoice in love’s glorious invitation.

"There is more potential power in a single human spirit than in any atom bomb."

Lord who is Love, bring your strength
To the suffering. Let the river of your
Grace flow across the skin of the burned
To cool their pain. Bring your light into
The eyes of those who care for these
patients. Bless them, love them, bring
the peace that comes only
through you.

"The call of beauty is not a cold call into the dark or the unknown; in some instinctive way we know that beauty is no stranger. We respond with joy to the call of beauty because in an instant it can awaken under the layers of the heart a forgotten brightness."

For love will always return,
Circling through every grey
To pink again the world.

 "We never speak our deepest gratitude because it cannot be spoken.

Blessings to you, Erie with love on your birthday (10/31)!

Liz Sorensen Wessel
Ribbons of color – top & bottom of page by ~liz

All quotes, Poetry & Photos by Erie Chapman, (except for pictures of him as a child, the globe hands and Good Samaritan)