Thanks to the special people
How does it feel to give thanks to the special people?
When does one stop seeing his younger sister as a child?
Robin is 5 years younger than I. She has been for 65 years. Maybe because she was challenged by the effects of the meningoencephalitis she contracted at age 2 weeks, I still see her as a child. The illness and subsequent neurosurgery left Robin with several challenges that have kept her childlike.
Her current movement into elderliness compounds the issues. The older we become the more childlike we behave.
Now that Robin is a patient at the Seton Medical Center, recovering from pneumonia, she is more childlike, more helpless. She is ready to go home to The Villa and doesn’t understand “not yet.” She wants to operate on her internal schedule that says “Supper is at five” in The Villa’s dining hall. Robin doesn’t grasp that she’s not at The Villa or that supper will come to her. She shows the restless urge to get out of bed, not caring that her walker’s absence and her IV connections won’t let her.
I look at her across the room and see she’s dozing like an overtired child.
One of the special people
I am here to soothe as much of Robin’s anxiety as I can. Also, I am here to soothe any guilt I would feel if I were elsewhere.
Makes me glad I make the 70-mile drive. Allows the fatigue I feel from more than just the drive to be totally acceptable. And it all lets me give thanks for all I’ve come to know for the 63 years I’ve understood that Robin is one of the special people.
Prayer of thanks to the special people
Living, loving One,
the years of being Robin’s brother
have been my blessing
though often that’s not known except from retrospect.
Thank you that she’s been my sister
loving and accepting, giving and challenging
all these years.
Thank you for as many years to come.
As Robin’s physical self wrestles with dis-ease,
we thank you for the strength she’s known and shown
so many times, many ways throughout her life.
Strengths shown to, shared with all of us.
We thank you that such strength exerts itself now.
And so it is. And so we thank you, God.
Love and Blessings,
1 February 2019
In: Oneness, Prayer · Tagged with: praying, thanksgiving
The Government Shutdown is over(?)
The Government Shutdown is over for the moment. I am not sad, at all. Not sad although I had planned this post the day before the shutdown ended. Planned it in a pre-shutdown context. I am not sad and I cannot imagine that anyone else is sad. That the shutdown is over, if only for a three-week moment, relieves and pleases me.
I struggled through the multi-faceted reports of the Government Shutdown. Meanwhile, I realized that my struggles as a TV observer were vastly less than the struggles of the 800,000 who were either not working and not being paid or working and not being paid. Still, I realized my struggles were minor in comparison to those still working in the agencies directly impacted by the shutdown: TSA and National Parks, for example.
The effects of the Government Shutdown emphasized–even to this outsider looking in–the value and the meaning of the work done to keep the US Government running. To many, I’ll bet the shutdown revealed how much work the government does that keeps our nation operating. I’ll also bet that surprised the many.
Perhaps most moving to me was the awareness of the fears and sufferings of the 35 days, especially to those out of work and receiving no pay. And to their families. Challenges to maintain spirit and faith in our government assumed a heavier weight each day. Needs to allay fear of financial challenge and short fall grew in intensity day after day. Tensions from the uncertainty of “when will the shutdown end?” and “how can we pay our bills, protect our home, and feed our children?” mounted minute by minute.
Recognition and praise should go to the many, many organizations and individuals who took steps to muster help and assistance for the furloughed workers and their families. As we move through the next 3 weeks quickly, there is great likelihood that we will face a repeat of the Government Shutdown. Here are three links to ways to offer help, should we need to again.
Praying about the shutdown
Guiding Power, Guarding PresenceHear our gratitude that the Government Shutdown has ended.
Receive our affirmation that the next 3 weeks
will display successful negotiations,
that there will be no recurrence of the shutdown.
Thank you, Spirit, for the heartfelt responses
from so many organizations and individuals that answered
the needs of those furloughed from their jobs.
We call forth and lean hard on our faith in you
and complement that with faith in our nation’s government.
We know the strength of the principles upon which
this country and the way it runs is fundamental
to our success, our well-being, our reliance on a life
of independence and government by, of, and for each one of us.
And so it is. And so we celebrate the Christ Spirit in each of us.
Amen.
Love and Blessings,
27 January 2019
In: Affirmation, Faith, Prayer
Rosalinda’s windows to Spirit
Rosalinda, the sweetheart of my Meals on Wheels route, offers limitless examples of windows to Spirit.
Windows to Spirit
Rosalinda suffers rheumatoid arthritis in the most severe form I can imagine. She lives in a small house with a very tiny front room. Almost all her time is in a bed against the front wall of that room. The bed is her operations base.
Unable to sit without support, Rosalinda lies and lives on that bed. She surrounds herself with everything she ever needs: remote controls, wireless phone, back scratcher, extendable claw to reach what’s out of reach, packages of plastic ware, bottled water, her Bible. She is so tiny there is room for all of that, and more.
Rosalinda requires assistance to leave the bed, to sit in her motorized scooter, and to return to the bed. Her hands can barely grasp a plastic fork. Simple acts like placing the phone in its charger stand or plugging in her scooter’s motor are beyond her ability.
This week when I knocked on her door and loudly announced, “Meals on Wheels!”, her voice doubled mine in cheerfulness. “I’m so glad you’re here! Come right in!”
As I entered, she was smiling and jumped into conversation about her favorite team losing its game the day before, being eliminated from the playoffs. With unabashed optimism on so many levels, she claimed, “No problem! There’s always next year!”
After I put parts of her meal in the refrigerator, swapped the phone on her bed for one fully charged, and plugged in her scooter, she asked if it was sunny outside. Her front room has one window beside her bed and one in the wall behind her. The drapes are heavy, and the room is often in shadow that is heavy, too.
I told her it was. Rosalinda asked me to part the curtains. “…but just a little near the top. It’s so nice to watch the sunlight march across the room. It makes a fine line of gold from that side of my room, all the way across until it shines off the doorknob.” Her tiny hand waved an arc to signify the sun ray’s path. Her smile was sunshine-filled even before I carefully opened the curtains.
As I opened them, I felt Spirit flow through Rosalinda’s windows. They were true windows to Spirit. I felt it fill her and radiate back to everything, everyone she encountered. I felt such a tremendous blessing.
Prayers to open our windows to Spirit
Sweet Spirit,thank you that I know to open the window,
the window through which you flow
and through which all Love and Peace and Joy flow.
I gladly forgive myself
for too often closing that window
by thinking and focusing and engaging too much
in what I create in my human mind.
In my mind I build obstacles,
I dig potholes, and I create hurdles that I think I need
to get around, wade through, or climb over.
In truth, there is not even a window between us.
There is nothing between us, neither window nor wall.
Spirit, my heart is my window to you, to Spirit.
I thank you that it is always open, always filled by you.
And so it is. And so I celebrate the Christ Spirit in me.
Amen.
Love and blessings,
18 January 2019
In: Authenticity, Faith, Grace, Prayer, Spirituality
Come together with forgiveness
His family experienced what he called a “come together Christmas.”
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
He flew to Chicago four days before Christmas to see his mom and dad. Mom has an increasingly difficult fight with cancer. Her 88 years of memory are more and more spotty. Dad is stalwart and holds the fort admirably. It is beginning to show, however. He owns 100% of the do, go, shop, buy, prepare and repair. The visit was busy. Tiring. The days went by fast, as their minutes dragged.
Christmas Eve he flew from O’Hare to Denver International. His wife and daughters had started the Texas-to-Denver drive several hours before. They would all come together at his in-laws’.
That half of the clan has its own history. His father-in-law is not without a cocktail from mid-morning til bedtime. Mother-in-law proudly proclaims her 20-year denial. Laughing she punch-lines that she means denial of sobriety. Sister-in-law gave up smoking cannabis as soon as Colorado legalized its sale. That’s when she merely switched preferred consumption to chewing, like cowboys chewed tobacco in Colorado’s prairie.
The three days in the in-laws’ home were not what he is used to. The conversations rarely stayed on course, unless they were simultaneous monologues on diverse topics. There was often disagreement. Loud disagreement.
Recounting the week surrounding Christmas Day, he never lost his smile. He spoke with the post-holiday enthusiasm of shared love and happiness. He sounded sincere. I asked him what made it a good Christmas.
“We were with family!”
I love the explicit forgiveness–absolute and unconditional–in what he said and how he said it. The behaviors and the disease and the emotional suitcases were no matter.
What matters is the spiritual oneness of our human families and our Family of God.
Prayer of Thanks for Forgiveness
Sweet Source of All That Is,Giving forgiveness frees me from the burden
of “wrong” consciousness.
That I forgive lets me, causes me
to look beyond my human view
that something is wrong.
When I forgive I let go of what I see as wrong
and I embrace the truth that all is Spirit.
Spirit is good so all is good.
I love when that letting go and that embrace
come together.
And so it is. And so I let it be.
Amen.
Love and blessings,
12 January 2019
In: Forgiveness, Happiness, Prayer · Tagged with: Forgiveness
