Tom Becraft

A Bamboo Grove for the Soul: a Storybook of Spiritual Resources for Caregivers Tom Becraft 1.º edición

Caregivers and patients alike know that hospitals are places where breathing is often labored and rest is elusive. The distance between wellness and brokenness is razor thin and sharp. For patients and their families, an illness is a scalpel splitting the veil between what has been and what might be. During such times, thoughts and emotions do not ask permission; they come unbidden, stirring a yearning for insight into meaning and purpose, and a desire that there be more to life than another blood draw, another tasteless intravenous ?meal?, or another choice between a snake and a serpent. This book is both storybook and handbook. Every portion is part of a tapestry that comes from life. All vignettes are drawn from real situations, but details have been altered to protect confidentiality. The book presents a picture of people stretched and framed by life?s circumstances. Spread out or wrapped up tightly, the fabric breathes. In and out, every thread dances in community whether colorful, tight, loose, somber or happy. On life?s loom, praying and breathing are the warp and weft, intersecting in an ongoing dance of creativity. As elements of life, they are intimate, instinctual and energizing. The first portion of A Bamboo Grove for the Soul seeks answers to the question, Where is God in this? How God reveals the Holy Self in chaotic times and places is intimately surprising and profoundly transformative. When God?s face appears to us in certain ways, our personal priorities shift both in how we pray and how we care for others and ourselves. In this section we look to the Creator as our greatest resource for healing human brokenness. The section concludes with ?De-stressing in Seven Breaths.? The second section is about community and the soul of an institution. As care providers, we sometimes inquire of individuals, ?With all that is happening for you now, how are you within?? This same question may be rephrased for institutions, ?What works and what doesn?t?? A Bamboo Grove for the Soul looks at how individuals interact with one another to build relationships. The Sacred?s gossamer beauty is here in people and also in a collection of prayers, blessings, and rituals offered at gatherings of people as conveyers of hope. The third section examines how an individual?s passions, skill-set, and sense of divine calling may converge to create teams of spiritual caregivers. This is a practical section that shows how the Holy One equips for service. It is particularly relevant for anyone contemplating a career as a professional chaplain. In this section, I relate some of my own experiences while transitioning into healthcare ministries. Above all, you will encounter the Sacred One as an integrative presence choreographing life in profound movements of grace. The fourth section introduces a unique way to create non-threatening, soul-renewing experiences in such places as chapels. The creation of contemplative, self-paced retreats changes people one person at a time without sermonizing. Included are suggestions for rituals and prayers that pertain to body-mind-spirit wellness. Each of the sample scripts may be experienced within the pages of this book or developed as part of a chapel?s or church?s décor to be received as part of a journey of personal integration and inner healing. You have permission to replicate or modify these copyrighted scripts for non-commercial personal and institutional settings. Please include a credit line such as: ?Utilized and/or modified with permission by Tom Becraft, author of A Bamboo Grove for the Soul, copyright 2014.? The fifth and final section transports readers beyond the world of loss and grief into flowering groves of grace. It is about anticipatory joy.