charleston: Do no Harm

Charleston: Do no Harm

“ Do what will help and not harm. Work for the common good. ..Share as widely as you are able. Speak the message of your heart. Learn as often as you can…Trust the power of love..” Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook Meditation

Wreckage of Twin Towers at Newseum Museum Washington DC
 

“Do no harm.” That was my prayer every morning as I drove to work at the Children’s Hospital for forty years. That is the oath that physicians take, but every year I became more and more aware of it as I experienced my own mistakes and those of others. I learned painfully there was only one possible answer, and that was to let it be known what I had done if I committed an error and counsel others to do the same.

We get into the most trouble in hiding or attempting to cover up what has happened. We are human. We make mistakes. It is so hard when our mistakes hurt others as they often do in our medical practice.

 One more lesson. I make less mistakes if I try to make decisions with counsel from others. My biggest mistakes have been made when I in my hubris believed I knew exactly what to do without talking to others.  Getting other opinions or help from peers or others involved by the decision can make all the difference.

This is another reason God calls us to community.

That is why having spiritual friends to talk with can make all the difference. When we hear something that has been brewing in our head come out of our mouth as we talk to others, we realize often how it is not the answer. Of course, hearing another’s opinion can also allow us to look at an issue from a very different viewpoint. We are all still learning. Hopefully, we are a work in progress.

Joanna  joannaeibert.com

Charleston: Mystery

Mystery

“A funny thing happened to me on the way to enlightenment: I realized how little I really know. I have learned a lot about God over these years.. The mystery of God remains just that, a mystery. I will keep studying, but along the way, I will walk outside on a starry night and just enjoy what I never expect to understand.”  Bishop Charleston, Daily Facebook Meditation

Camp Mitchell Sunset

When I talk to spiritual friends who score as a thinking person on the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator Test (www.myersbriggs.org), people who makes decisions by what is logical, consistent or rational, they usually may have difficulty with mystery. If they score as a feeling person, they make decisions by what is best for relationships and special circumstances and what is valuable, they will usually have no difficulty with mystery.

Mystery is at the heart of our faith. In fact, faith means belief in God or in doctrines of a religion based on spiritual understanding rather than on proof. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) We who work out of our feeling function must be patient with the those who make decisions out of a thinking function. They have much to teach us about studying and learning about our faith. We, on the other hand, can invite them out to see the stars and watch the sunrise and the sunset and feel the breeze and smell the wonder.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Going Upstream

Going upstream

“We are very reasonable creatures, but to feel the grace of God, one must forget about reason and go on a pilgrimage to a place where we no longer ‘see as through a glass darkly,’ to a place where we are able to see with eyes of gratitude, rather than with eyes of conquest.” George Grinnell,  A Death on the Barrens

We sit by the Mississippi River near Memphis watching barges move slowly upstream on this late December cold windy morning. The few dog walkers and runners along the shore move faster than the endless barges churning up white water as they move against the current.  The covered barges ride high on the water. They must be empty but are still straining to travel upstream to be filled more inland on the banks of this mighty river. Where is their destination? St. Louis?

I hope to remember these upstream barges. I like leading my life more easily, moving downstream, going with the flow. Sometimes, however, I am called to go against the crowd, upstream. It will help if I travel lightly, not take myself so seriously, not carry a lot of my own baggage, not be on a right or wrong conquest, know that the journey upstream moves slower than journeying downstream, and remember to speak my truth with gratitude for the opportunity I have been given.

Joanna joannaseibert.com