I thank you all for allowing me to bring joy into your lives and I appreciate all the community we build together. We will continue to have fun and expand our culture in the next few months.
As the fierce heat as waned and Summer has begun its gradual change into Fall, we have all received a reminder that despite living in metropolitan Phoenix, where at first glance our environment and surroundings seem so controlled and ordered, the unending cycle of our natural world continues on in the background without any management or administration from us.
Despite us liking to think that we have subjected every aspect of our world to our own whim and desire, the natural world has a habit of prodding us every now and then, and reminding us that humankind, despite its opinion of itself, is merely a part of something much larger.
Anyone who has been out at sea when a storm is heading toward them will be quick to tell you that no matter how much we might want to, ultimately we do not have control over everything in our lives.
A lack of control is often a difficult thing- we all like to manage and govern as many aspects of our lives as we can, but what happens when we come face-to-face with something which we cannot control? Then we hit a problem. Despite our society offering us control and innumerable choices in our lives, there are still those things over which we have little or no choice.
That is why for me, those nudges from nature are so important. They help to remind me that I have to remain open to the ungovernable aspects of my life, and not to get so caught up in my own life as to forget that I am only a small part of something much bigger. The Welsh poet, W. H. Davies, encapsulated this reminder in his poetry:
What is this
life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Perhaps by simply standing and staring we might also remember some other words, this time from the 14th century mystic, Julian of Norwich, who wrote that despite our worry and fear when we lose control, with faith in God “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well”.
Step right up and… put in your suggestions and ideas to the Life Enrichment Committees’ new boxes. Resident, Una Thomas, has taken the time to create new suggestion boxes for the campus. There are two boxes, one located at the entrance of the Life Center and another at the Information Station, located near the Fitness Center. We encourage you to use these boxes to submit your ideas for trips, interactive programs or just a simple note to share how we are doing. All events will be discussed at the Life Enrichment Committee meeting, with the goal of putting them into our calendar. When submitting a trip idea, please be sure it is at least two months in advance to the program date. This will give us time to plan properly, as we schedule 30 days prior to the upcoming month.
Lights, camera, action!
Join us at our Fourth Annual Variety Show being held in the Life Center on Friday, June 16th at 10AM. With talent including singing, dancing, poetry reading and more, you will not want to miss it! We will have some returning talent as well as new talent taking the stage. Come cheer on fellow residents and enjoy a great time with us all!
Jennifer Jolls will be here on Saturday, June 17th at 3PM in the Life Center, showcasing the talent of young pianists. The theme of the performance is “Let’s Go to the Movies.” Jennifer will be sharing the talent of over 16 students who attend her piano lessons year-round. After the performance, enjoy refreshments and chatting with the performers. Everyone is encouraged to attend.
Be sure to stop by Igor’s Jam and Jazz Session on Saturday, June 24th at Buckwald’s. With guest entertainers and a great show, you will not want to miss out. The show will begin at 3PM. Look for Igor’s small pocket fliers for additional information.
As always, if you have questions, please call Monica at 18526 or Didi at 18473. We look forward to hearing from you!
He first saw her in Sunday school when he was six years old and she was just five. “She had golden curls and beautiful blue eyes,” he recalled. They graduated from high school together in 1901, but went their separate ways — he moved to Kansas City and she to Colorado for a year — until becoming reacquainted nine years later. It was then that Truman, who once wrote of Bess, “I thought she was the most beautiful and the sweetest person on earth,” began his first and longest campaign — to win the heart of Bess Wallace.
On January 10, 1845, Robert Browning wrote to Elizabeth Barrett for the first time, after reading her volume of poetry, Poems. He was a little-known thirty-two-year-old poet and playwright, she was an internationally renowned poet, an invalid, and a thirty-nine-year-old spinster. “I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett — I do, as I say, love these verses with all my heart,” the letter said. Over the course of the next twenty months, they would write each other close to six hundred letters — one of the greatest literary correspondences of all time. The pair’s last letter was exchanged on September 18, 1846, the night before the two left for a trip to Italy, and two weeks after their secret marriage. Their romance, which she would eventually credit with saving her life, lasted for fifteen years and spawned some of the world’s most beautiful poetry.
The world has seen many great romances and as we look to another Valentine’s Day this week we celebrate all the things that bring us together in loving relationships. I would contend, however, that it is even more important to celebrate those things that keep us together year after year, for 50, 60, 70 plus years. St. Paul spoke of loving another patiently, attentively, unconditionally—moment by moment, day by day. Love encourages, it builds up, it comes alongside and affirms the other. Love is much more than the chemistry of our feelings at any given moment–sometimes love is taking out the garbage and working that second job to pay the bills. Dostoevsky said, “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in sight of all…But active love is labour and fortitude.” Let us celebrate the many couples on our campus who have lived out that active love of labour and fortitude together for many decades. Let us celebrate love in all of its marvelous manifestations! Roses and chocolates, candy hearts and valentine’s cards are important but let us celebrate labour and fortitude, patience and forbearance, forgiveness and compassion, trust and hope, and all the things which make up the stout fabric of which a lasting love is made. *
