Beatitudes Community

Healthy Holidays

The holidays are often a time of joyful experiences, but they can also bring about unique health challenges. During the season of giving, it’s still important to take care of yourself; we hope to provide a few tips to stay healthy this winter.

  • Talk about vaccination status: Most of the breakthrough COVID cases among residents on Campus have resulted from family gatherings. Before planning your holiday get together, talk with your loved ones about who will be in attendance and be sure they’ve all been vaccinated.
  • Be mindful of medications: With winter allergy, cold, and flu season upon us, be mindful of over-the-counter medications, which can have unintended side effects. For example, medications that have sedating or pain mediating effects, such as decongestants and cough syrups, can lead to confusion. Consult your doctor before taking beginning new over the counter medications for cold symptoms, and always being aware of multi-symptom products that treat coughing, sneezing, pain, etc. These medications can contain similar ingredients to medications you are already taking, which can put one at risk of overdose.
  • Healthy healing alternatives: Try alternatives to over the counter cold and allergy medications, such as resting, drinking more fluids, saline nasal sprays, and drinking honey in your tea for coughing.
  • Winter workouts: It’s easy to fall away from your usual exercise routine during the holidays but maintaining an exercise regime for 30 minutes a day helps boost your mood and energy levels and improves sleep quality. Try to carve out regular time for yourself to prioritize walks and healthy activity even on busy days.
  • Seasonal schedule: Keeping a usual medication and sleep schedule, especially if you are travelling, also boosts your immune system and energy levels. Aim to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day and be consistent in taking your medications on time. If traveling, have an updated copy of your medication list with you, along with your labeled medications and pill organizer. Before you leave for a trip, make sure you have enough medications for the duration of the trip and for the days after you return, so you won’t need to rush to refill medications.
  • Holiday food and spirits: Maintaining a healthy diet can be challenging during the holidays, but it is important to stick to your regular diet as closely as possible. It’s okay to treat yourself, but eat rich, fatty and sugary foods in moderation and add more vegetables to your holiday plate. This season is also a time when people are more likely to drink alcohol at parties and gatherings. Studies show that regular drinkers have a tendency to over-imbibe during the holidays, while many holiday drinkers who do not drink regularly need to be aware of their lower alcohol tolerance. Be mindful of the risk of confusion and falls when drinking and ask your physician or pharmacist about how alcohol interacts with your specific medications.


Keep these tips in mind and enjoy a happy, healthy holiday season this winter!!

Love Goes Where It Is Needed

Yesterday I was reading a book by Evelyn Underhill. She was a nineteenth century poet, novelist, and a theologian. One bit of this book in particular stood out to me. She wrote this about love, that “Love is creative. It does not flow along the easy paths, spending itself in the attractive. It cuts new channels, goes where it is needed. Love goes where it is needed.” In the New Testament scriptures, we hear something else about love – that ‘God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them’. Paired together these two insights make a remarkable statement: That God is made known to us as love when we need it most.

So where do we need love most?

Well perhaps we need love most in the parts of us that are broken, or hurting, or afraid; the parts of us that we often don’t want to acknowledge ourselves, and sometimes struggle to share with God. But that is where God is. Exactly where we need Love to be,
– with us in our vulnerability, where and when we need God the most, cutting new channels into our hearts. Abiding with us. Staying with us always. Evelyn Underhill knew that love went where it was needed by the person of Jesus, and the first letter of John explains how she could know that; “God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which we are made whole. Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another” So let’s go and do that – let’s go and love as we know that God is loving us.

Holidays and Empty Chairs

‘Tis the season to surround ourselves with friends and family and count our blessings. It is a time to take inventory and acknowledge all that is good and sweet and right. It is about celebrating presence but sometimes what this season is marked by more than anything else—is absence. Pastor John Pavlovitz writes:

“Surrounded by noise and activity and life, your eyes and your heart can’t help but drift to that quiet space that now remains unoccupied: the cruel vacancy of the empty chair. The empty chair is different for everyone, though it is equally intrusive. For some it is a place of a vigil; the persistent hope of a prodigal returning, of a severed tie to soon be repaired, of a long overdue reunion to come. It is a place of painful but patient waiting for what is unlikely, yet still possible. For some the chair is a memorial; the stark reminder of what was and no longer is, of that which never will be again. It is a household headstone where we eulogize and grieve and remember; a face we squint to see, a hand we stretch to hold, a voice we strain to hear. This may be the first time the chair has been empty for you, or you may have grown quite accustomed to the subtraction. Either way it hurts.”

Pastor John Pavlovitz

I know that hurt, as do you. My father died twenty-four years ago on November 25th so when my family gathers around the Thanksgiving table every year, we are aware of the empty chair which he filled. We feel the absence of his presence. We remember how he loved Christmastime! The holidays are supposed to be filled with celebration, joy and peace but often they have a way of magnifying loss; reminding us of our incompleteness, our lack, our mourning. The lessons that the empty chair teaches us are about living in the moment and being thankful for what we have and about growing through our struggles. Sometimes we acquire that wisdom and find that healing in our own way and in our own time and sometimes we don’t. Life is unpredictable and messy that way. In some way during the holidays, we all sit together gathered around this same incomplete table and one thing we can offer one another is our compassionate presence in the face of the terrible absence. Pavlovitz suggests that “in this season each of us learns to have fellowship with sadness, to celebrate accompanied by sorrow. This is the paradox of loving and being wounded simultaneously.” May we each make peace with the holidays and the empty chairs. And remember, if you need someone to sit with you in your sadness, you need not be alone – just call one of us (Chaplain Peggy, x16109 or Chaplain Andrew, x18481) and we’ll be there.

Mercy’s Beam I See

Advent has always been my favorite season in the Church calendar. Singing in all of those Advent Carol Services as a child whilst holding a flickering candle clearly made an favorable impression… despite the piercing cold!

The theologian Walter Bruggemann reminds us that while Advent is a time for getting ready, “getting ready time is not mainly about busy activity, entertaining and fatigue.” He goes on to explain his thought on how to be prepared in a spiritual sense for the coming celebrations of Christmas is about also being “abrasive, in that our preparation is also linked with asking, thinking, pondering and redeciding”. Abrasive is at first glance a curious choice of words, but by “abrasive” he means that the season of Advent is best approached by making a conscious and perhaps even uncomfortable decision to rebalance and reorient our lives, refocusing on how we can live our lives fully in tune with God. When experienced with an open heart and mind, the season of Advent aims to provide insight and perspectives for us to welcome God’s light into our lives in the person of Jesus. Over these past couple of years, carving out that space for pondering upon how God’s light shines into the darkness and difficult parts of our lives becomes even more vital. And so instead of being unbalanced in a perpetual state of getting ready so as not being really ready for anything – I hope you may join with me in being mindful of how we use or time between now and Christmas. To find the right balance of preparation and contemplation as we ponder, watch and wait. Perhaps I’ll start by revisiting the words of Charles Wesley’s Advent hymn ‘Christ whose glory fills the skies’; “Dark and cheerless is the morn unaccompanied by thee; Joyless is the day’s return, till thy mercy’s beams I see, till they inward light impart, glad my eyes, and warm my heart.” May we all see beams of mercy and light this Advent season.

Time and Age

I was touched by a recent Facebook post that shares about things we learn through time and age: Read it through to the end, it gets better as you go!

I’ve learned that I like my teacher because she cries when we sing “Silent Night”. Age 5

I’ve learned that our dog doesn’t want to eat my broccoli either. Age 7

I’ve learned that when I wave to people in the country, they stop what they are doing and wave back. Age 9

I’ve learned that just when I get my room the way I like it, Mom makes me clean it up again. Age 12

I’ve learned that if you want to cheer yourself up, you should try cheering someone else up. Age 14

I’ve learned that although it’s hard to admit it, I’m secretly glad my parents are strict with me. Age 15

I’ve learned that silent company is often more healing than words of advice. Age 24

I’ve learned that brushing my child’s hair is one of life’s great pleasures. Age 26

I’ve learned that wherever I go, the world’s worst drivers have followed me there.
Age 29

I’ve learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it. Age 30

I’ve learned that there are people who love you dearly but just don’t know how to show it. Age 42

I’ve learned that you can make someone’s day by simply sending them a little note.
Age 44

I’ve learned that the greater a person’s sense of guilt, the greater his or her need to cast blame on others. Age 46

I’ve learned that children and grandparents are natural allies. Age 47

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on and it will be better tomorrow. Age 48

I’ve learned that singing “Amazing Grace” can lift my spirits for hours. Age 49

I’ve learned that motel mattresses are better on the side away from the phone. Age 50

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a man by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. Age 51

I’ve learned that keeping a vegetable garden is worth a medicine cabinet full of pills. Age 52

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you miss them terribly after they die. Age 53

I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life. Age 58

I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. Age 62

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. Age 64

I’ve learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, the needs of others, your work, meeting new people, and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you. Age 65

I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with kindness, I usually make the right decision. Age 66

I’ve learned that everyone can use a prayer. Age 72

I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. Age 74

I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch – holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. Age 76

I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. Age 78

I’ve learned that you lose family and friends over time, so make new friends and remember the good times. Age 80

I’ve learned that you should pass this on to someone you care about. Sometimes they just need a little something to make them smile.

Reports of My Leaving are Greatly Exaggerated

To deliberately misquote Mark Twain – ‘the reports of my leaving the campus are greatly exaggerated’! I am however happy to share with you that I shall be taking short periods away from my usual schedule to take part in the 2022 LeadingAge Leadership Academy. A number of other campus staff members are alumni of this same program, and I’m very excited to take part myself. Over the coming year the academy cohort will meet communities both similar and different to our own, as well as online, sharing our own experiences whilst we delve into the various ways (and contexts) in which best practices of leadership can be applied to real-world settings within and outside of the field of aging services.

And yes… there will be homework to complete as well! In preparing my application for the program I was asked to write a brief account of my thoughts on the current perception of communities such as our campus, as well as my vision for how to develop and build upon the strong foundations which have stood us in good stead for almost 60 years. Seen as I was writing about you, I think its only fair to share a small portion of what I wrote; ‘…I suspect that if one were to ask the average person in the street what life is like in a retirement community that the words such as sleepy, boring and death would be found amongst the responses – whereas a more accurate description would include the words LifeLong Learning, community, choice and living!’

Growing in experience and understanding of how to expand upon that reality and dispel those conceptions is at the heart of the LeadingAge organization, and our campus life together, and so I look forward to returning home with tales to tell and experiences to share. But I shall be coming back.. and in fact I doubt you’ll notice that I’m gone.

State of the Campus – November 14

I want to thank all of you – residents, families and staff – for your dedication and steadfast support throughout the past twenty months. We have all witnessed the massive impact that COVID has had on all of us – from social distancing, to masks, to vaccines to families being separated and reunited. Our thoughts and prayers go out daily to everyone who has been impacted by this virus, directly or indirectly.

Much has happened this year regarding COVID-19 vaccines, both nationally and locally. Just think, a year ago we didn’t even have a vaccine and now more than 7.8 billion doses globally have been administered. The science and data clearly point to the vaccine’s critical role in protecting ourselves and each other from severe illness and hospitalization. The safety of our residents, families and staff members is and always will be our number one priority. It is for this reason that we announced our vaccine requirement for staff, in addition to the fact that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) required staff in our organization be vaccinated or apply for an exemption. Without this requirement, we would lose our ability to accept Medicare payments.

While we are disappointed to lose any of our dedicated staff due to this issue, we know that vaccine choice is a personal decision. We hear in the media so much about vaccine hesitancy and the passionate opposition to a vaccine requirement. What we don’t hear about is the voice of all the people who are the “silent majority” who think that the vaccines are important – to protect themselves and those around them. What is especially meaningful to me are those who choose to live our mission and our values to keep each other safe by getting vaccinated if they are able. I have received stacks of emails and letters from staff, families and residents who applaud the vaccine requirement, who feel safer because of it and who feel like they can move forward without the fear of COVID.

I want to lift up our Beatitudes Strong family, and especially the staff members who have been with us through this pandemic. I am very touched and proud of how our staff stepped up even more than usual to engage in acts of generosity and support. They are heroes in every way. They exemplify an amazing power of positivity and kindness, especially throughout the past months. They came to work every day while their children or loved ones were learning or working from home. They put their career dreams on hold to pivot for our residents – to deliver meals and Roadrunners door-to-door, to screen each other and visitors for COVID symptoms, to shop for groceries and to help with infection control. They worked long hours to figure out Zoom and the community channel and to figure out how to video so that our residents wouldn’t feel disconnected. More than a few staff lost loved ones or had family members who were ill. Most staff couldn’t even visit their families and have in-person support. Yet, they came to work every day (and still do!) to serve our residents cheerfully. Our staff supported each other, too, in so many ways, too – to lend a hand at work, to crack a joke, to bake cookies or bring lunch to a colleague, to help each other when we were exhausted. I am so proud of our team – they are the shining example of Beatitudes Strong! Please, when you walk past them on the sidewalk or meet with them or see them in the Bistro, give them a hearty thank you for all that they have done – and all that they will do.

Beatitudes Campus staff are now 90.1% vaccinated with at least one dose of the vaccine. We approved religious or medical exemptions for 4.9% of the staff. We have not heard of the intention to be vaccinated for 5% of the staff. Eight staff members chose to leave their jobs. I am so proud of our staff.

This week, we unfortunately have had three staff members test positive for COVID-19 – one support staff in Assisted Living, one support staff from Facilities and one direct care worker in the Health Care Center. All were vaccinated and all of them were exposed outside of campus and subsequently got the virus. All are doing well.

I want to wish all of our veterans a Happy Veterans Day. I salute the men and women who have fought for our country and for our democracy and thank them for their service. Our veterans are the epitome of dedication, selflessness and resilience. Thank you. Stay strong!

Sincerely,
Michelle Just, President and CEO

Only God Can Make a Tree

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

– “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer

This poem is what my mind kept returning to as I visited San Antonio a few weeks ago. I was there to see my Aunt and do some sightseeing around the city and my eyes and heart were drawn to the beautiful trees there. More than once I had the urge to climb the branches of a few of them, but resisted only because I may have gotten myself kicked out of places like the Alamo and the San Jose Mission if I attempted such shenanigans.

There were beautiful tall oak trees all over with their large armed branches twisting and turning as they reached ever outward and upward. Within their twiggy fingers they held air plants which reminded me of tiny unfinished birds’ nests.

At the Alamo there was a huge pecan tree that was planted in 1850 by the explorer and rancher Peter Gallagher. It is the oldest tree on the property and is called a “pampered princess’ by the Alamo horticulturalist because it is treated so well by all the caretakers. Being over 80 feet tall I would say this pampered princess is very well taken care of and adored by more than just the squirrels.

I have always found myself feeling closest to God when I am in nature and amongst the trees. There is something about a large ancient tree that not only reminds me of the Creator, but shows me who I should strive to be as well. Standing strong and sturdy against the elements. A sentry, offering a place of respite without judgment in the shade of its leaves and the strength of its limbs. Reaching skyward towards the sun with a quiet grace knowing, that no matter what happens, all shall be well.

Nature is a spiritual place created completely from seed to towering tree by God and for me it is sometimes the best sanctuary for prayer. May we all be able to appreciate and enjoy the blessings we can find every day in nature.

THE RETURN OF THE WELLNESS CENTER

Did you know that Beatitudes Campus has a Wellness Center? We do, it’s right across from the Town Plaza Salon in the Culver H. Nelson Administration building.

If you go back in time, to the days before the COVID pandemic, Beatitudes Campus boasted a bustling Wellness Center, offering various services that you’d normally have to go off campus to obtain. First, the pandemic pushed the campus into a lockdown mode, where no one from the community was even able to come onto campus. Sadly, that included all of our Wellness providers. At one point the Agelink building on campus was transformed into a COVID unit. That meant that all of the staff that had offices in Agelink had to be temporarily rehomed. Resident Services ended up taking over the Wellness Center as office space. What we thought would be a brief pause ended up stretching to nearly 18 months. Now, as we find ourselves coming out of the pandemic and facing a “new normal,” we’re proud to announce the return of the Wellness Center! I’d like to take a moment and re-introduce these providers to you.

As always, our trusted on campus Medical provider, Mobile Valley Physicians (MVP), is here to meet your primary care needs. Staffing issues have prevented them from reopening their clinic on campus, however, all of their services are still available to you. Contact MVP at 480-589-2890 for information or to schedule an appointment, and look for their clinic on campus to open just as soon as they have the staff to do so.

To meet your dental needs we have Mobile Dentistry of Arizona. Mobile Dentistry of Arizona comes to campus the 1st Tuesday of each month-you’ve likely seen their giant RV. Inside is a modern, fully-equipped dental office! To schedule an appointment with Mobile Dentistry of Arizona call 480-737-2375. The campus also has a relationship with Smiles by Delivery, and they offer house calls. Smiles by Delivery can be reached at 623-584-4746.

Lab services will be coming back to the campus this Friday! For blood work and lab draws Unique Labs is here to serve. Due to the need for privacy during these services we’re going to use the Agelink Great Room. Unique Labs will be on campus every Friday from 8 AM till 10 AM. Be sure to bring your lab order and a copy of your insurance card with you. Don’t want to walk over to Agelink? Call the Around the Block transportation shuttle at 15007 and they’ll give you a ride! Unique Labs is at 480-765-2677.

Team Select, formerly known as CareToU, is back as well, offering mobile dermatology services. They usually bring their mobile unit and you’ll see them parked near the fountain directly in front of the Care Center. If you have questions about services offered or would like to make an appointment, contact them at 602-639-0189.

For hearing services, we offer up two different options. Premier Hearing is at 602-253-3532 and Better Hearing is at 602-765-7800. While neither of these providers has been able to come back to set hours in the Wellness Center, they still want to be able to offer all of their services to campus residents and during the temporary closure of the Wellness Center, Premier still saw clients via house calls. Better Hearing is looking to return to Wellness Center hours after the first of the year and we’ll be sure to bring you information when they do.

Maybe you need to have your eyes examined or it’s time for a new pair of glasses. Eyes on Site is here to help! They are on campus the 3rd Thursday of each month and they work by appointments. If you’d like to make an appointment, give them a call at 480-626-8925.

Are your feet giving you trouble? Would you like to be seen by a Podiatrist? We’ve got that covered as well. Dr. Christopher Sheena with Billet Podiatry is on campus the 3rd Wednesday of each month. Dr. Sheena has been seeing patients in their apartments; however, with the Wellness Center reopening, he’s going to shift to seeing his patients there. To make an appointment call 480-661-6061.

Our goal is to provide you with as many of the services that you need as we can. Many of you already have a great relationship with a provider in the community but if you’re in the market for a new provider we hope you’ll give one of these a try. Is there a service that you wish was offered on campus but isn’t? We’re always looking for new ways bring services to our residents, so if you have a suggestion, reach out to me by calling 602-995-6119 (x16119 on campus) or send me an email at [email protected]. I want to hear your ideas about how to make the Beatitudes Campus Wellness Center even better!

Be well!

Commemorating Veterans Day

Each year in November the commemoration of Veterans Day gives us a time to stop and pause to remember and honor the sacrifices of those who have served in our armed forces. And what could be more appropriate than to read and reflect on excerpts from the following article “What is a Vet?” by a veteran, Father Denis Edward O’Brien. (I found the article among papers saved by my late husband Ed. Both he and Father O’Brien served in the U. S. Marine Corps in the South Pacific in WWII.)

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service, a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye, a piece of shrapnel in the leg—or perhaps another sort of inner steel: The soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking. So what is a vet?

  • He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
  • She or he is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang
  • He is the POW who went away one person and came back another—or didn’t come back at all.
  • He is the three anonymous heroes in the Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deeps
  • He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket—palsied now and aggravatingly slow—who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when nightmares come.
  • They are ordinary and yet extraordinary human beings—individuals who offered some of their most vital years in the service of their country, and who sacrificed their ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice their own.

So remember each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say “Thank You.”

As we remember veterans no longer with us with gratitude in our hearts and reach out to thank veterans still in our lives, we commemorate this Veterans Day with a special, heartfelt thanks to all veterans in our Beatitudes Campus community. Thank you for your service, indeed!

Friends of Plaza View

I recently had lunch with a great fellow, Charles Hobgood. It seemed as though we had known each other for years-and in full disclosure, I knew of him before I ever actually met him. “Hobs”, as he prefers to be known, came to the campus from Defiance, Ohio where he taught at Defiance College, a United Church of Christ College. He and Marabeth conducted most of their research about the campus from afar, taking video tours and attending webinars that we conducted over the course of the pandemic.

But little could I have known the heart of this true giver until we had an opportunity for a little “tea and toast”, and he shared with me a vision for being of service to our assisted living residents in Plaza View. So, with his vision, foresight and kindness, we are starting an organized program of serving residents called “Friends of Plaza View”. Hobs has penned some narrative that I believe says it quite well:

Even after all this time
The sun never says to the moon
“You owe me”
What happens with a love like that?
It lights the whole world

Hafiz – 13th century Persian mystic

Hafix’s main point is how important it is to make a contribution. This is verified by what the gerontology literature says today are the two most important aspects in aging well – namely having an influence on our daily lives and making a contribution in our world. The opportunity to participate in the Friends of Plaza View gives residents of the Beatitudes a chance to actualize both of these characteristics.

What does becoming a Friend of Plaza View ask? It asks that you do one of two things – either become a one-on-one friend with a resident of Plaza View or volunteer to help in the facility for an hour each week helping the staff do things like distribute the mail or pass out beverages, etc. What does become a “one on one friend” mean? It could mean many things such as just sitting in conversation, watching a TV show together, attending an event together of just taking them out into the sun.

I think on of the greatest definitions of love is: “love is the process of leading you back to yourself.” What is the process of leading you back to yourself? LISTENING!! Sometimes a person needs a story more than dinner. Oh, and one more extremely important point – this is a two-way street where we both learn from each other. The chance to sit under a canopy on the patio outside of Plaza View and chat with a hundred-year-old plus African American woman about the life she’s led in a segregated word is like a free graduate school education without tests and papers.

How do we get started? The short way is, if this speaks to you after you have read about the opportunity is to email me at [email protected] and I will get in touch!! (Please leave your email, phone and campus address and which of the two opportunities speaks to you.)

If you want more information, a staff member or I will be coming to the various building meetings to chat more and try to engage you in this project. It is important to know that this is a need well beyond our campus and nationally 56% of all Plaza View-like residents identify loneliness as a major issue.

Rod’s epilogue: So, along with Hobs, I am thrilled to be a part of an organized effort to be the community that cares – from within and with not only staff but residents involved. Thank you, sir for your generous spirit and heart that radiates the true mission of this campus! Great days ahead!

Touchtown Equipment Options

Residents without a computer nor smart phone may find an inexpensive device for connecting to our campus Touchtown Community. Amazon has two options either at a cost of about $40 or a cost of around $100 that are easy to operate. The Amazon Fire TV stick can be attached to your TV and provide some of the Touchtown features; that is the least cost method. The Amazon Fire tablet (previously called a Kindle) can be found in a small screen size for as low as $50 but a larger screen will be nearer to $100 without commercial advertising. All Amazon devices have access to Alexa which is useful on Touchtown when asking what is going on today and may be more useful in the future as more features are added. Our campus Touchtown Ambassadors can help you get set up. Currently the Ambassadors are meeting on Thursdays in the Bistro at 2:30PM to offer their services helping residents get connected.

Japanese Kintsugi

Awhile back I broke a favorite vase of mine and I tried as best I could to put it back together again. It brought to mind the nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty after his fall. I kept the vase although it didn’t look the same and I couldn’t use it for it’s original purpose. Perhaps it looked ok from afar but upon closer inspection you can see where it was broken and repaired. I thought of my vase when I learned about the Japanese artform called Kintsugi. It is a beautiful form of ceramics which has much to teach us. When a vase or bowl or cup is broken, artists gather up the broken pieces and glue them back together. It is how they put them back together that is steeped in wisdom and beauty. They mix gold dust with the glue and instead of trying to hide the cracks they own them, honor the, even accentuate them by making them golden. They celebrate the cracks as part of their story. Kintsugi ceramics are stunningly beautiful and it is believed that once repaired in this ancient method, Kintsugi pieces are more beautiful, and more loved than before they were broken.

According to art historians, kintsugi came about accidentally. When the 15th-century shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa broke his favorite tea bowl, he sent it to China for repairs and was disappointed that it came back stapled together. The metal pins were unsightly, so local craftsmen came up with a solution — they filled the crack with a golden lacquer, making the bowl more unique and valuable. This repair elevated the fallen bowl back to its place as shogun’s favorite and prompted a whole new art form. Recently, a resident gave me a book called Life is Messy by Matthew Kelly who asks the question, “Can something that has been broken be put back together in a way that makes it more beautiful than ever before?” Kelly laments how quickly and easily our society throws broken things away because we cling to the false notion that we have to try to keep everyone and everything from being broken. He says, “I marvel how God doesn’t use straight lines or right-angles in nature. We invented right-angles and straight lines to prop up our insecure humanity. The perfection of nature is marked by crooked lines, brokenness, imperfect colors, and things that seem out of place. The perfection of creation is achieved through its imperfection. And so it is with human beings. Your imperfections are part of what make you perfectly yourself. If we put on the mind of God, we discover one of the most beautiful truths this life has to offer: Something that has been devastatingly broken can be put back together in a way that makes it more beautiful than ever before. It is true for things, but it is even more true for people, and it is true for you. This is the source and the summit of hope.”

Scripture agrees that like the kintsugi crafters who repaired the shogun’s bowl with gold long ago, imperfections are gifts to be worked with, not shames to be hidden. 2 Corinthians 4:7 says, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” Owning the fact that we are all clay jars allows us to be free and human in the way God intended. Each of us is subject to chipping and cracking and likely to contain imperfections but it is those cracks and imperfections that give us character and beauty.