And yet his words are a prayer not for supernatural problem solving, nor even to grasp the entirety and complexity of whatever befalls us, but simply for the guidance and support to simply take one more step forward on our pilgrimage of life.
“Women have a unique power of being able to look at the world’s problems and discover solutions that transform lives and make the world a better place.”
You can witness the power of those words first-hand at the Third Annual Power of Women: Wine, Women and Conversation event, which will be held on Wednesday, September 18, from 5-7 pm in the Life Center. We are shining a light on three women who are shaping the Phoenix community: The Honorable Kate Gallego, Mayor of the City of Phoenix; Dr. Maria Harper Marinick, chancellor of the Maricopa Community Colleges; and Dr. Judy Jolley Mohraz, trustee of the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. They will be discussing their life journeys – the highs and lows and everything in between. We will hear the expansive amount of work they do for our community and how the connections and support they receive from our community has been transformational in their lives. Our own President and CEO Michelle Just and Letitia Frye, our Power of the Purse auctiontainer, author and speaker, will moderate the panel discussion.
Mayor Kate Gallego has spent her career working to find solutions to complex problems. Prior to being elected as Mayor this past March, she served for five years as the City Councilwoman for District 8. She is the second elected female mayor in Phoenix history and the youngest big-city mayor in the United States. She’s passionate about building a Phoenix that works for everyone, including her two-year-old son, Michael. Prior to being elected mayor, she worked on Strategic Planning and Economic Development for Salt River Project. Mayor Gallego graduated from Harvard University and earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Maria Harper Marinick is a national leader in higher education and strong advocate for access, equity, and student success. She has served in leadership positions for 17 years at Maricopa County Community College District, one of the largest community college systems in the U.S. serving 200,000 students across 10 colleges. She was appointed chancellor in 2016. She is the first female and the first Latina to be appointed to lead a higher educational institution in Arizona. She is originally from the Dominican Republic and came to Arizona in 1982 as a Fulbright Scholar to complete graduate work at Arizona State University, where she earned a master’s and doctoral degrees in education.
Dr. Judy Jolley Mohraz has spent her life committed to the community and education. She served as the founding president and CEO of the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, the largest private foundation in Arizona and currently serves as a trustee. She positioned the trust to be a significant partner in civic leadership, constructive change and investment in solution-focused social strategies. Prior, she was president of Goucher College in Baltimore for six years and served on the faculty and administration for 20 years at Southern Methodist University. Her academic focus was American history and she authored a book about Black education in the northern U.S. in the early 20th century. She serves on numerous boards and was a presidential appointee to the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Naval Academy. She earned her doctorate from University of Illinois and her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Baylor University
Michelle Just, as we all know, is the amazing leader of Beatitudes Campus and has made enormous contributions nationally in the aging services field. Letitia Frye has been involved in Beatitudes Campus for the past five years as auctioneer at Power of the Purse. She has made a big impact on the Arizona nonprofit community and has helped raise more than $400 million for these organizations.
For those of you who attended Power of Women last year, you know how positive and uplifting this evening is. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cheer on your new friends. I hope you will come this year!
We invite you to join us at Power of Women and be part of the Women, Wine and Conversation. Tickets are $45 (wine and appetizers included) and can be purchased by calling me (Barbara Wood at x16136) or coming to the Foundation offices. Please call me if you have any questions. I hope to see you there!
Each of us has had at least one individual in our lives who has helped to shape us into the person we are today. Perhaps for you it was a particular teacher, colleague, friend or relation? I consider myself fortunate to have had a variety of such people who have guided me along my way, and recently I have been thinking about one such person, who probably has no idea of his influence upon me.
At eighteen, I left home for my undergraduate studies in Theology at the University of Chester and while there I became a regular worshiper at the cathedral in that same city. The cathedral had six resident priests who, in rotation, would preach and officiate during worship, all of whom I got to know well. One of those six was Fr. Trevor Dennis. Trevor is one of the finest Hebrew Bible scholars I have encountered, with a wonderful gift for poetry and expression which I encountered over the years in his sermons, his published works, and in conversations over cups of tea. He is a member of the select band of preachers whose sermons I can remember for longer than a few days after I have heard them! But importantly for me, at a time when I needed it, and without knowing he was doing so, Trevor challenged me to live deeper into my faith, and helped me to grow in my understanding of how God was at work in my life. I still have books of his poetry and translation on my study shelves, and turn to them regularly. Look at how he begins the introduction to one of those books;
“God is familiar, well known and very close, yet so many these days do not feel the warmth of his embrace… how then to convey that mystery and the familiarity? That is the question and task facing anyone who would dare speak of God”.
With hindsight, it is clear that Trevor became one of those people who I can say has shaped me, and despite not having seen or spoken with Trevor for many years, he continues to challenge me and guide my ministry as I read his words and remember our conversations years later.
God moves in mysterious ways. Trevor would agree with that, and he would probably agree that God moving through him was one of the most mysterious ways of all.
May we all be open to God working through those around us. May we all be open to God working us. May our eyes and ears be open to those who surprise us and challenge us, and, in turn, may we all grow in faith, understanding and love.
Imagine a day where none of your coworkers would look at you, your family all ignored you when you tried to speak to them, and even strangers on the street went out of their way to avoid you. How would that feel? Now imagine it happening every day.
The Admin. for Community Living – a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – believes that when older adults and communities stay connected, everyone wins.
That’s why “Connect” is the first step of the three-part theme for Older Americans Month 2019: Connect, Create, Contribute. Celebrated every May, Older Americans Month is a catalyst for people of all ages to connect and participate in a larger conversation about aging in America — a conversation that grows in importance as the number of older Americans continues to increase. This theme helps remind us to connect with friends, family and services that support participation. It reminds us to create by engaging in activities that promote learning, health and personal enrichment. It reminds us also to contribute our time, talent and life experiences to benefit others.
At the beginning of 2000, 46 million Americans were older than age 60. By next year – 2020 – that number is expected to reach more than 77 million! Celebrating Older Americans Month is a good time for us to honor your contributions to our community. As volunteers, educators, mentors, advocates – you have offered your insight and experience in ways that benefit our Beatitudes community as well as the broader community. You have enriched our neighborhoods and communities through your work ethic and sacrifice to expand the promise of prosperity. Communities that encourage your contributions are stronger. With your engagement and support, we recognize that you play a key role in the vitality of Beatitudes Campus and in our lives.
We are honored that Phoenix Mayor, Kate Gallego, and Arizona Governor, Doug Ducey, proclaimed—at Beatitudes Campus Foundation’s request – that May 2019 would be celebrated as Older Americans Month. The White House also issued a proclamation for Older Americans Month, saying, in part, “Older Americans are treasured members of our communities. They have poured their lives into our country in ways seen and unseen—often at great personal sacrifice. During Older Americans Month, we honor these Americans, we remember their countless contributions, and we proudly renew our abiding commitment to their well-being.”
Beatitudes Campus is investing today to create a network of programs and amenities to inspire, support and empower you, our residents, as well as future residents to lead healthy, enriched and fulfilled lives. One way we are doing that is by connecting—connecting you with programs that are offered on campus, connecting you with one another and connecting you with us to help us discover new ideas.
Beatitudes Campus Foundation wants to connect with you! We will host a Foundation Open House on Wednesday, May 22, from 1:30 to 3PM, in the Agelink Lobby area. It will be an informal drop-in – drinks and treats provided! You can find out what the Foundation does and you can get to know the Foundation team – Barbara Wood, Linda Travis and Ray Gonzales. But, most importantly, we will be able to hear from you and hear about your ideas! We look forward to building connections with you.
This year, as well as fasting from my favorite treats, I have also been accompanied on my Lenten pilgrimage by the poet Malcolm Guite’s book Word in the Wilderness; A Poem a Day for Lent and Easter. Poems are an ideal companion for the season of Lent as we seek to reorient ourselves to God, with poetry often providing a call for us to ponder the wonders of the world around us while looking and listening for God at work in us.
One of the poems included in Guite’s collection is entitled How I talk to God, by Kelly Belemonte.
“Coffee in one hand leaning in to share – How I talk to God. ‘Momma, you’re special’, three-year-old touches my cheek – How God talks to me. While driving I make lists: done, do, hope, love, hate, try – How I talk to God. Above the highway hawk: high, alone, free, focused – How God talks to me. Rash, impetuous chatter, followed by silence – How I talk to God. First, second, third, fourth chance to hear, then another – How God talks to me. Fetal position under flannel sheets, weeping – How I talk to God. Moonlight on pillow tending to my open wounds – How God talks to me. Pulling from my heap of words, the ones that mean yes – How I talk to God. Infinite connects with finite, without words – How God talks to me.”
This beautiful work causes us to ask ‘What is prayer?’, and reminds us that a life of prayer is both speaking to God, but also listening, in turn.
In his reflection, Malcolm Guite says this;
“Saint Paul calls on us to pray without ceasing, leading some contemplatives have interpreted that as a call to leave the world with its business and distractions and seek long swathes of uninterrupted time devoted to prayer and prayer alone. Others have seen it as a call to have a continual hidden mantra, wheeling and cycling beneath all we do, providing an undercurrent or ground note of prayer beneath all our daily activities.”
In different ways for different people, both of these approaches are valid and neither exclusive of the other. Perhaps the greatest gift of Belemonte’s poem is to remind us, once again, that each day we find ourselves in conversation with God within the ordinariness of our lives.
May we all spend this season of Lent attuned to that conversation, to both speaking and listening, so that that the very rhythms of our everyday lives are opened up to God, and offered up as our unceasing prayer.*
Once again, the world has witnessed another atrocity born out of hatred. The faces of the fifty victims of that murderous shooting, of people gathered together in worship and prayer in Christchurch, New Zealand appear in our newspapers and on our screens, and once again the question is asked; `how did we get here?’ Free societies are an open marketplace of ideas and convictions, however the pluralism and freedoms which we hold dear is indeed fragile. As we have seen in the live-streaming of this latest tragedy, it has become much easier to dole out division and bigotry to an eager and growing audience. Social media sites like Facebook will again come under increased criticism for what they allow to be uploaded and shared, and rightly so. However, our response in the face of such horror needs to be an enduring one, born out of desire to invert the extremism of hate into the radicalism of love. As Professor Mona Siddiqui wrote last week, “Laws can curb the excesses of human behavior, but ultimately it’s our individual moral commitment to human fellowship and friendship which changes relationships and communities.” When we resolve to live out of love rather than submit to hatred, to live as peace-builders rather than turning away from others who are different from ourselves, then we can begin to have the difficult conversations about how we got here and how we can live into the model of humanity attributed to Saint Francis; ‘where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. And where there is sadness, joy’. To love requires much more of us than to hate, and yet, even in the shadow of these days following this massacre, we are witnessing the healing power of human solidarity. May this solidarity and opposition of hatred continue to grow, and may we all commit ourselves in our own way – by prayer, words and deeds – to its flourishing.
As you read this article, Chaplain Andrew and I will be in Chicago at the 7th International Conference on Aging and Spirituality which began in Canberra, Australia in 2000 and until the 2015 Conference, all were held in countries of the British Commonwealth: Australia, New Zealand, England and Scotland. This is the second time it will be held in the United States and Andrew and I are excited to attend. These conferences include voices from many parts of the world, voices from the domains of the academic and the aging services, voices from various faith traditions and voices representing the “spiritual, but not religious,” and they include a mixture of keynote speakers, workshops and papers of interest to those coming from a faith based approach and to those approaching spirituality from a secular viewpoint.
We will be meeting at the historic campus of Concordia University, Chicago which has a Center for Gerontology (the study of aging and older adults). The conference theme is “Transition and Transcendence: Transforming Aging through Spirituality.” Together we will explore navigating the transitions of aging, how transcendence is experienced in times of change, and how the experience of aging and our understanding of it can be transformed. “How do we, as persons who are growing older ourselves and who serve older adults, encourage ourselves and encourage them to find the spiritual paths and practices that will sustain them – and us – through hard change and loss? And how does our spirituality help us to move from focusing on our own needs and pains to seeing ourselves as part of a wider world, where, in spite of limitations, there is still much we can offer and needs we can meet? How do we engage the wider cultures in which we live in conversation about the possibilities and promises of aging in the midst of all these transitions? In short, how can we harness the power of the spirit available to all of us to transform aging wherever we live?”
It is exciting that Andrew is one of the presenters speaking on: “The Road Goes Ever On – Viewing Aging As A Step On Our Spiritual Pilgrimage.” In his presentation, Andrew will be using the experiences of many people here at the Campus to demonstrate how beneficial it is to see aging not as a dilemma, but rather as an essential and beneficial part of our life-long quest for self-understanding and spiritual growth.
Having never been to Chicago, I am looking forward to seeing new sights and learning new insights. Plus, I’ve heard they have some pretty good pizza! Look for a future article in which we will share about our experience.
*By the way, the word “ageing” in the title is not a typo. The Conference comes from other parts of the world, where they spell it as “ageing” rather than how we spell it here in the United States – “aging.”
One of the last minute gifts I gave to our daughter Maddie this year is a bracelet with one word on it. I was attracted to this website the week before Christmas because Chris Pan, founder of MyIntent.org, is asking the world “What’s Your WORD?” His mission is to be a catalyst for meaningful conversations and positive energy. Your WORD is something you want to have more of in your life or a challenge you want to overcome. He says: “We believe there is purpose inside each of us and we want our efforts to encourage people to share more truth and inspiration with each other. We are not a jewelry company – we are an intentions project. When you choose your word it is hand-stamped into a wearable bracelet or necklace as a daily reminder and conversation starter. Ok, I know this could easily be a gimmick, but the thing is I asked Maddie “What’s your WORD? and she said, “THRIVE.” I asked “Why thrive?” and she said that she wants to thrive and not just survive. That was a catalyst for a conversation and information about my daughter that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. The WORD that I chose is “JOY” because it is meaningful in my life and my faith and has deep connections to my father who died years ago. I asked my husband what his WORD was and he said he didn’t want a bracelet. Ok, it’s not for everyone. I am inspired to think of my WORD as my intention, not my resolution, as I go into this New Year. One of the makers of the My Intent project posted this: “Guess what, you are perfectly imperfect just the way you are and there is nothing “wrong” with you, nothing that needs fixing…what you can do is love yourself a little more a little deeper. Surround yourself with people who inspire you and push yourself to be an expanded version of who you already are. Do things that set your soul on fire and fill your heart with love. Expand your mind, experience new things, connect on a deeper level with those around you. So instead of creating a “resolution” or asking yourself what needs “fixing”….set an intention for what you are CREATING in the world and who you are committed to BEING. Find what makes your light shine and do more of that. Shine brighter in the new year.” May it be so. What’s your WORD?
The Welcome Committee is planning a WEAR YOUR NAME TAG WEEK beginning October 24th through the 30th. During this time, we are encouraging all residents to participate! Wearing your name tag gives other residents the opportunity to greet you by name and start up a conversation. It picks up the spirits of anyone who may not be having a good day, and is a great way of making new friends. It broadens your horizon as you gather more people into your circle of life and you get to know them even better when this friendship becomes stronger. We all come from different backgrounds and different parts of our country and have great stories to share with everyone.
