“Act as if everything depended on you; trust as if everything depended on God.”
St. Ignatius of Loyola
Inigo de Loyola was born in 1491 in Azpeitia in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa in northern Spain. He was the youngest of thirteen children. At the age of sixteen, he became a page, and then a soldier of Spain to fight against the French. A cannon ball that hit his legs and a series of bad operations ended his military career in 1521. While St. Ignatius recovered, he read the lives of the saints, and decided to dedicate himself to becoming a soldier of the Catholic Faith.
Soon after he experienced visions, but a year later suffered a trial of fears and scruples, driving him almost to despair. Out of this experience he wrote his famous "Spiritual Exercises". After traveling and studying in different schools, he finished
in Paris, where he received his degree at the age of 43.
Many first hated St. Ignatius because of his humble Lifestyle. Despite this, he attracted several followers at the university, including St. Francis Xavier, and soon started his order called The Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. There are 38 members of the Society of Jesus who have been declared Blessed, and 38 who have been canonized as saints.
Ignatius died at the age of 65. He was beatified on July 27, 1609 and canonized by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622 together with St. Francis Xavier. Ignatius' feast day is celebrated by the universal Church and the Jesuits on July 31, the day he died. Saint Ignatius is venerated as the patron saint of Catholic soldiers.
A Green House home is an independent, self-contained home for six to 12 people, designed to look like a private home or apartment in the surrounding community. Green House homes are typically licensed as skilled nursing facilities and meet all applicable federal and state regulatory requirements. Each person who lives in a Green House home has a private bedroom and full bathroom, opening to a central hearth/living area and an open kitchen and dining area. Elders share meals at a common table. Family members, friends and staff are welcome to join the community at mealtimes and other activities.
Each home is staffed by a team of universal workers, known as Shahbazim. The staff has core training as Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), plus extensive training in The Green House philosophy, the self-managed work team structure of The Green House home, culinary skills, and household management. Shahbazim provide personal care, meal preparation, and light housekeeping and laundry, among other duties.
A clinical support team includes nurses, social workers, therapists, physicians, activities and dietary professionals, and pharmacists. Nurses serve each Green House home on a 24-hour basis. One nurse typically covers two homes during the day and evening and up to three homes at night. The other clinical professionals on the team visit the houses regularly and as individual residents require.
The people who live and work in a Green House home collaborate to create a daily routine that meet an elder’s individual needs. If they wish, elders can help cook, and assist with light housekeeping and laundry. There is no predetermined routine, facilitating their independence and the ability to pursue individual interests.
Today at 3pm, senior staff, Board of Directors, and ombudsman and liaison nurses went on the agency van to see this place in Chelsea. Still completely blown away!
It's the only urban one of these "green house homes"--- most are like separate ranch houses in the country--- these are the ranch houses, two on each floor, stacked, for a total of ten "households" of ten individuals each. They are private residences, with a front door, large living room with a fireplace, large communal kitchen, large dining room, individual bedrooms each with a private bathroom, and either a patio or porch. We did not get a tour of the entire ten households; as a private residence all members of a household had to agree to open their home to us.
The one we saw was completely inhabited by folks with ALS, AKA "Lou Gehrigs Disease". With technologies in place, each individual was independent; even if all they could move was an eyebrow or to blink an eye, they had computers set up to mobilize them in a wheelchair, turn things on and off, open & close things. Even had some kind of automated device in each room to "lift" them out of their wheelchair to put them in bed, and something automated to clean themselves up in the bathroom. Nurses and other staff are there, availablle, and are part of the household. On this unit, three individuals were 24/7 ventilator dependent. And this IS a full fledged nursing home, have to meet DPH and all other regulatory requirements, take Medicare AND Medicaid.
Another specialized unit were for folks severely disabled by MS. The others were elders in various degrees of frailty, dementia and Alzheimers--- or not.
I have never seen anything like this! Shows what IS possible for elders and severely disabled. Movement is called "Culture Change" and this is not only state-of-the-art, but is CREATING the art & science to make it so!
"
The heart will find the pathway home." ~Wilbur D. Nesbit
“Fuse the powers of the sacred heart with the energies of the body, and you can transform everything.”
- Teillhard de Chardin
“The Spirit shall look out through Matter's gaze And Matter shall reveal the spirit's face and all the Earth become a single life.”
- Sri Aurobindo
Thank you, Lord, for welcoming me to a new week full of challenges, celebrations, HOT weather, sunshine and a lifetime spent in Your Glory. Our lives have become so busy that I often feel like I don’t spend enough time with You, my Heavenly Father. It’s easy to become so caught up in the chaos of life that sometimes even my prayers are spoken on my way from one place to another. That is one of the immeasurable reasons I love you so… You listen to my prayers, even if they are spoken in the car as I wait for my children during their activities. You listen as I sit next to a friend taking chemotherapy. You listen when I am preparing dinner or doing the dishes… You HEAR me above the noise of my life and every night, when life is quiet, I pray how grateful I am to have You with me every step of the way.
Very excited this morning, as it is now time to pack and otherwise get ready for our trip. I can drive myself (and by extension, Jack) crazy when I get packing, as, in fact, I want ALL my stuff with me... And yet, one of the last times we went to the Cape, I completely forgot to pack underwear or socks for myself..... actually had to go to a Target store to get some very basic supplies.
About being fascinated with "organizing"----
First, did you notice that the Hebrew OR means light? And is the first part or our words ORder, ORganizing, ORdinance (like in laws and regulations), ORdinate (like in numbers).......... Found that interesting.
Second, I have been interested in organizing also. Also simplicity. They go together well. In fact, I know some good websites. If you can, check out one for LIVING PEACE. This is a professional organizing business (local), founded by someone who went to seminary, and found this to be her ministry, as well as her business. Her name is Erin Wells.
For me, this was an off shoot of things happening "out there" that my agency NSES (North Shore Elder Services) has been increasingly dealing with and which has become a HUGE national issue: HOARDING. Local police departments have had to become involved, local public health departments, councils on aging, family services, veterans services..... and Protective Services. People who hoard are a danger to themselves and to others.
It is not only a problem for the individual and/or family involved, but for the neighborhood and community. It has to do with mental health, public health, safety..... It's not always just stuff, but can be animals.... quantities of dogs, cats, birds..... Increasing there have been task forces and collaborations to try to deal with this problem.
In addition to hoarding, there is an increasing problem with cluttering. Clutterers are not quite to the hoarding stage, but are more and more disorganized and overwhelmed.... at a point where an intervention may also be prevention.
To start with, in our country, our society, our culture---- WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF! And it is how we feel about stuff, how we deal with our stuff, including what to do with old stuff when we get new stuff. And so on and so forth.
Back in the day, many of my parents' generation had a "Depression Era Mentality" that prompted them to buy necessities in quantity and store them against future shortages. So, for instance, when we went through their house to downsize to their "cottage" at the CCRC (continuing care retirement community) their attic was over-filled with toilet paper, paper towels, soap, underwear..... I don't know it's the same thing today. Most of our generation have not had to deal with shortages so much as "overages".
MEANDERING again. Organization, I believe is a good thing. Our Lord is orderly, both in His creation and His plans and purposes and the working of these out in our lives, and in His continuing creations through Time and Space--- and whatever other dimensions He has created that we don't know about and may never know about!
And some folks, like my DIL Melissa, have a real gift for it.
Simplicity will be my next topic. But right now, I'm getting that sense that this is too much fun, and may be turning into procrastination. Packing for a trip, after all, is a practice of one type of organizing, n'est-ce pas?
The WRITING -- has been coming for a very long time.
LONG time ago, teachers in school, even elementary, said I had a knack for words. The Pastor I had through high school, Pastor John Nilson (very important man in my life, I have considered him to be my "spiritual father", gone now since 1981 (to the Lord) and left Worcester a couple years prior to that--- said he thought I "could be good with people" and was "quite a writer in the making"--- words I have never forgotten...... not too many others said such encouraging things to me.
I wrote good reports, for college, and for work, once I had jobs that required me to do so. People at NSES love my reports, whether about Mediations in facilities, staff meetings, whatever. Especially my former supervisor, there, Rhonda Gauthier (former teacher then principal of the middle school in Beverly, retired, then was bored to tears, and now, with her husband extremely ill with chronic cardiac disease.... went back to work, and having been on our Board, took a brand new position as Director of Communication....) loves my writing and has encouraged me, maybe even to learn to write grants (obviously for NSES but I'm thinking.... Haven)
Have you ever heard of John Polce? He's from Rhode Island (so knew Rev Ken) and is known for his music ministry all over... kind of a Michael Card type of balladeer. One time he was Wesley to do ministry and said he heard from the Lord that someone there, in the congregation, would be writing a book, an important book, someday, called LOVE NEVER FAILS. No one replied to him at the time, but I FELT it.... and have never forgotten.
I wrote at the Haven, for assignments, then press releases and PR type material to go to churches, introductions to funders, our brochure..... "meat & potatoes". And Jude liked my writing so much that, she herself having heard from the Lord that she was to write a book, that interwove her personal story with the story of the Haven, asked me to be the collaborator on that, what is frequently known as a "ghost writer". We had begun, with interviews and stream-of-consciousness..... when I had to leave. She has told me she still needs to do it, but that it's hard for her. She does better if someone listens and writes. AND she has some kind of electrical problem when she works on computers, her hands are like full of electricity and screws them up. So maybe something to do with this project is still pending.
All this may sound like bragging, not sure, but it doesn't feel like it right now. It is feeling like I am simply accepting something that I have, that the Lord made me with--- like gray eyes and bad vision--- and also accepting that the time may have come to do something with it.
Hence, MEANDERINGS. And the beginning---- is NOW.
Last fall there was a weekend Conference at CTR, via the Healing Ministry, on the Father's and Mother's Blessing. A couple, retirement age perhaps a bit older than us, who have a teaching ministry around the country, presented. (NOTE: I was scheduled to go a Ladies Weekend with my sisters out in Springfield, for them an annual event, would have been my first). I explained a little to Jack and we decided to go, thinking of our children. I knew for him there would be new information-- on the Hebrew meaning & doing of blessings.... etc, etc.
There was wonderful teaching, then the couple offered themselves to give, according to their gender, the father's and mother's blessings. People could come forward for this. Jack went forward for himself--- he's had lots of deep issues concerning his father. His mom was a teacher and his dad a principal, and they (his brother Arthur & Jack) went to his elementary school. And in the first place they were a complete surprise, as their sister is 12 years older, and they may have even been unwelcome. In addition to constant & brutal criticism, his dad got into verbal abuse, and physical abuse, till they got bigger than him. And then he died, when they were 16.
Something incredible happened when Jack went to get his blessing. It was awesome, and it became noticeable. Everything got all light & sparkly around him and the other man; people noticed. He experienced such healing then, which was a beginning of something still in process. Because of this, he was asked at that time to also offer blessing to others, which he did. (He has never done anything like it). And so the next month, when the Healing Service was going to begin, as we were going to the Sanctuary, he was asked "Are you going to be praying tonight?" and he said "Yes of course", but then it became apparent they meant was he on the healing team. He's not--- at this point--- but he's of practical assistance for that service, greeter, tissue fetcher, catcher, collection receiver and counter.....
And we're still hopeful that we can cooperate with the Almighty that there can be a New Thing for all our children and grandchildren....
How CTR (Christ the Redeemer) got it's name. Church was in process of forming, and a building found, first leased now owned, formerly Catholic a great fit for Anglican. So, the issue was--- what should the name of the church be? Fr Jurgen Liias (formerly of Christ Church in Hamilton, founding rector of CTR, soon to be Catholic and ordained a Catholic priest for the Ordinariate) had a dream, and as it happened, so did the senior and junior wardens of the Vestry---- that they were in the building, and all these people were coming with bags and boxes of cans & bottles, and when Jurgen asked WHY--- a Voice was heard---"Have I not told you this place is to be a REDEMPTION CENTER?"
Hence the name, Christ the Redeemer.
MEANDERING. Going from one thing to another, one place to another. Maybe one thought, one prayer to another. One of my favorite things to do.
PUTTERING happens to be my favorite activity, or non-activity, as the case may be. "Putter: to move or act aimlessly or idly; to work at random." Getting pretty good at this one.
In addition to MEANDERING and PUTTERING, I am also pretty good at DRIFTING.
This is the state of (slowly) coming from a sleeping to waking state, going (slowly) from a waking to sleeping state, and is a deep resting state. Not resting like sitting down after a long walk. Sitting or lying are common when drifting, but are more than just that--- getting absorbed in birdsong, neighbor sounds, running water or tides, but not doing any in-depth processing of sensory data, not having any particular thoughts--- drifitng is a deeply relaxed, non-doing state of being. I enjoy drifting very much.
It is similar yet distinct from ZONING, though some may use the terms interchangeably. Zoning as I understand it is a state of very focused doing--- like an artist painting, a musician composing or playing, a writer writing, a worshipper worshipping--- in which time has no bearing. I can zone at times, and enjoy it when it happens.
Because MEANDERING is such a favorite occupation of mine, and one I'm very good at, this blog will be named accordingly!
