The holidays; it’s that time of the year that some love and others really struggle with. For me it is a combination of the two. It is a reflective time of year for me as my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer on December 15th of 1993 when I was 20 years old. Christmas was my mother’s favorite holiday and she always made it wonderful for us kids. That year leading up to Christmas, as you can imagine, was tough. Many of our traditions went by the wayside that year as she was so ill.
One tradition that stopped that year for my brother and I, because that was our last Christmas with her as she died in early January of 1994, was the tradition of picking out a “special” ornament each year that had our name and the year on it. The ornament often reflected something we liked or were interested in that year. For instance in 1986, my brother Michael got a red truck ornament, as that was the year he received his driver’s license and a red Ford truck. My mom started this tradition because she always said that when we moved out she wanted us to have ornaments for our own tree. Michael and I enjoyed each year when we would decorate the Christmas tree with our parents. It was always fun to unwrap each ornament and then discuss why we had chosen that ornament as our “special” ornament that year. There usually were lots of laughs because, in retrospect, some of the reasons were very silly. After my mother’s death, every year when I would put a tree up, I would have moments of tears and smiles as I placed my ornaments on the tree. I remember thinking that I couldn’t wait to start a family and begin that tradition with them.
The Christmas of 2002, my husband Jeff and I were able to begin the tradition of the “special” ornament for our daughter, Lauren. Her first ornament, just like my very first ornament, was a brass angel with her name engraved on it. Lauren is now 14 years old and our son Luke is 10 years old and they both enjoy picking out their “special” ornaments, unwrapping them and placing them on the tree each year. This year we had custom ornaments made for each of them. The front of Lauren’s has a picture of her kicking a soccer ball, along with her name, the year and the name of the 2 soccer teams she is on. The back of the ornament has a picture of her and her team celebrating after a win. Luke’s ornament has a picture of him with his race truck on the front along with his name, 2016 and that he was the AZ and CA Champ. He also chose a picture of his race truck for the back of the ornament. I love helping the kids pick out their ornaments each year as it is a really neat way to remember what was important to them that year.
About 5 years ago, I began buying a personalized family ornament so that our tree won’t be completely bare when the kids’ ornaments are no longer hanging on to our tree because they have moved out and are hanging on their very own. They both have told me that they love that I have begun doing that and they will carry on the new tradition of a family ornament with their families in the future. It is interesting how something can turn into a tradition. I hope you still celebrate the holidays with some traditions you grew up with or can think fondly of some traditions that you started. Happy Holidays!
ix years. Why do we do it every year? We do it for you, our residents! All the proceeds we earn from Power of the Purse are directed to support initiatives and programs for the campus, such as our commitment to assist residents who may be in need of financial help because they have outlived their own personal assets. Proceeds also help advance our programs, to help ensure that you have the greatest opportunity for living life at the highest potential.
My first call as a minister was as an Associate Pastor at a Presbyterian Church in Sun City. I remember a couple who had recently retired and moved away from their life as it had been, their children were spread far and wide and they came to Sun City and settled into their new home, found our church and became church members. For about six months that was great, they enjoyed the leisure time but the day I came to visit they told me they both were restless, they were getting on each other’s nerves being around the house so much and knew they needed to invest themselves in something else. The best way to describe what they felt was in this intriguing question from salesman Zig Zigler:
You made a beautiful decision. Maybe one of the best decisions you could have made for this time in your history. You had choices, but you chose, brilliantly, to live in a community where, if your living situation should become less than optimal with your quality of life decreasing – you have wonderful choices. That is because you chose to live in a community that offers you a continuum of increasing possibilities. Change is hard, but you made a hard choice that I believe guarantees the highest quality of life possible for you.
There is nothing like turning to the Psalms to find eloquent, beautiful verse. Psalm 139 is one of my favorites and the line that always rises above the rest is where the Psalmist says: “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).” Do you know that you are fearfully and wonderfully made? Do you know the profound worth of your soul and that there is an astounding splendor in you? Our world is populated by people of every race, status and age, all yearning to feel worth and value. Whether an orphaned, poverty-stricken child in Africa, a prostitute in Thailand, a military officer in Russia or an executive on Wall Street – every soul searches for true significance. Often times, however, our search leads us to all the wrong places. We try to find our worth in economic status, acceptance by peers or a sense of special accomplishment. Inevitably, we discover that net worth does not produce self-worth. Acceptance by friends does not equate to well-being within. Comparing favorably with others does not produce peace with ourselves.
I can’t get it out of my mind. It haunts me. It is likely not one of us here at Beatitudes Campus, either resident or staff, has not been affected by the events in Orlando last weekend. One wishes that such brutality and terror were only in the movies. But not even a movie can portray the horror of what we all witnessed. It is impossible to comprehend what the victims and witnesses were facing as the sick and demented soul made his way through the nightclub shooting and killing unceasingly.
Some may know and some may not, but I am gay and proud of who I am after decades of trying to deny who I am. Some may say I am biased as I write this. I will always believe I am just working to help create a community that aspires to the dream of God for all peoples as I long to be part of a community who will accept me, and people like me and all others. For I, too, crave to be able to walk in a community where I won’t feel people looking at me and talking about me when I am with my partner. I am tired of the shouts coming from a passing car calling me a “fag” and worse. I hunger for a time when I, or my friends like me, don’t have to always have it in the back of our minds, “are we safe here?” like we have to today. I want to know there will be a safe community for me when the day comes that I want to live in a Beatitudes Campus type of community.
The art of pottery is oftentimes described as therapeutic and relaxing. While spinning clay, your mind and body are in natural synergy, wrapped around your creative ambitions and goals. This thoughtful, artistic activity can open up the mind and relieve you of outside worries. Did you know we have a Ceramics Studio on campus? The picture that is shown is a piece of art created by Bernice Gronek, Georgia Katrales, and our volunteer instructor Jane Hustead at the Beatitudes Campus Ceramics Studio.
