reverb 10: december 24 - everything's ok

reverb 10

December 24

Everything's OK: What was the best moment that could serve as proof that everything is going to be alright? And how will you incorporate that discovery into the year ahead?

I have these moments here and there and I really love them. I think the best one can probably be described in this blog post from last summer.

Just the juxtaposition of what I deal with on a daily basis--seeing the aged who have lived through so much; dealing with people who are truly in crisis, yet will also make it; talking with people who help to remind me (sometimes abruptly, sometimes very subtly) that I am still quite young and some things will fall into place more easily than I think at this point in my life--all of these things help me to feel as though it is okay.

I think the one moment when this really his me in 2010 was right after Easter last year when I volunteered to provide devotions each Monday morning in April at the nearest UCC retirement community. I would rush up there to be there in time, and was late a few times, which was no big deal. And then as I would go around and visit after devotions, I would get this sense that time was fluid, that there was so much that we rush to do that is unimportant, that these folks who are in assisted living, or in the dementia wing, or in the more independent retirement-community-ish section, have lived so long, and contain within them so much wisdom and experience, and they know how to put things in their proper perspective.

(Now, to be fair, of course this is a bit romanticized; there are those who feel they have been "put in a home" by family who doesn't want to care for them at home, or who are unable to; there are those who truly are on the outer edges of dementia and don't know where they are or who they are and who are quite violent; there are those who are rude to the staff and who complain about everything, just as they have done their who lives; there are those who are rude to the staff and who complain about everything because they're hurting so deeply because they've outlived their siblings and their spouses and even their children...I don't want you to read this and think that I don't get that. I think that on the particular day I'm writing about, at least for me, I was able to see the blessings that come from being around a place where people have a lot of life experience and can see that the fact that you're stressing out about whether or not you have time to get an oil change that day will or will not really be a big deal. That is all.)