Years ago a student approached me after a class I taught at Belmont University. "Do you know about the ancient Greeks' "thread concept?"

   I did not. She sketched a picture simpler than the one here (the only one I could find that suggests the concept.)  It showed a stick figure held to the earth by four ropes. Above the person's head ran a thread to the heavens.

   "We are tied to the earth," she said, "but the thread symbolizes our ability to reach peace while still on earth." 

   William Stafford's life changing poem begins, "There’s a thread you follow. It goes among/ things that change. But it doesn’t change."

   Caregivers catch glimpses of unearthly peace. A suffering patient or a loving nurse suddenly gains a look of transcendent serenity. Is that unseen thread at work?

   "You have to explain about the thread./ But it is hard for others to see," Stafford's poem continues. /"While you hold it you can’t get lost."

    The poet speaks particularly to caregivers: "Tragedies happen; people get hurt/ or die; and you suffer and get old."

   His last line is a guidebook to peace: "Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding./ You don’t ever let go of the thread." 

   Our senses can show us a world in chaos. "The Golden Thread" is one part of the trinity of Radical Loving Care. 

   May Stafford's words help you find your golden thread and experience a new peace as you care for those in need. 

-Erie Chapman