My heart is with all of you readers who have lost a loved one recently or who still feel the heartache of loss after years. In many traditions, these November days are a liminal time to remember ancestors and share some of the better stories, funny stories, heart-warming stories.
One of our communitee members, Patty C., shared that her husband, Roman C. passed “peacefully, in beauty,” she said, last week. How the threads of our disparate and unique human lives are connected moved me as I read Roman’s obituary and learned that he too played the piano, became a displaced person, became trained and worked in design and engineering, that he and Patty were garden caretakers and lived in the caretakers cottage at the local Glen Magna Farms for five years.
Patty’s decision to name Marymac Missions as an option for memorial donations moved me to tears. I experienced this – a first – as a validation and affirmation that I’ve made a difference in her life, a difference in their life, and that she trusts our mission-work, ever growing and evolving, to be a healing resource for many more in the future. On Friday morning, when I read this news, I found myself sitting in the same chair I sat in January 2010, in our cozy small den, when I felt Spirit ignite my heart to accept the calling to be an activist for 24/7 weary and endangered caregivers. Once again, tears filled my eyes and emotion overwhelmed my heart, as I felt myself accepting this new now, walking with trust (and not without fear) into an unknown future… reminding myself, I am a vessel for the Spirit.
November is National (U.S.) Family Caregivers Month and Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month… Let us remember all Souls who have passed on due to the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease: both care-receivers and care-givers.
Grateful for your prayers ~
Moving forward with a listening heart,
vision, inquiry, and action,
~ Mary
