[Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79

Fri Jul 13 08:22:20 PDT 2018

Greetings to all,

Now in my 81st year and 10th year as care-partner with Norm Lindblad on
the Alzheimer's /dementia road, I welcomed John's words.  Indeed, "You just
never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well
worth celebrating."

I have been graced with amazingly good health and read recently that 80 is
the new 65!  Perhaps over stated and I feel wiser now, but I do give thanks
daily for the worldview many of you shared and instilled in us.  I will not
list it all but I do know that RSI, countless projects pulled off with
astounding results using limited resources and not enough time, colleagues
support, and *celebrations *have seen us though. Symbol *is* key and the
Earthrise on our wall in many different residences have made a difference.

This poetry helped me celebrate the intense 5 days we experienced just a
week ago today.  Norm is finally relaxed and doing well in a carefully
designed, patient-focused care facility.

*A CRAZY COSMIC COMPLEMENT?*

After 56 years of f*or better or worse promises* and carefully crafted
care...

Is this some crazy cosmic complement?

Some gracious gift beyond imagining?

It took 4 years, 5 moves, and countless hours googling...

for Arden Courts to come into focus for us...

Just when we were ready and needed it!

Thank Providence they had room for Norm!

Not only that, but an apartment for me at Valley Creek will meet my needs
as well.

*Of course it isn’t over*,* but...*

A friend offered a ride to our church's annual Poetry by the Pool gathering
and

I’m here tonight to celebrate our new life begun!

JOL 7/6/2018

*from* “*morning has broken” poetry fragments*

(*Focus of the evening was "Palindrome" a book of poetry by Cincinnatian
Pauletta Hansel written in response to her mother's dementia...* *and I
read this poem!*)

*Thanks to the Creator, the Redeemer, the Sustainer, and many family,
friends, and strangers!*

Grace and Peace and do Take Care to Celebrate!
Judy and Norm Lindblad,
10620 Montgomery Road Apartment 109, Cincinnati, OH 45242 (Judy's address
after July 27)

On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 5:55 PM, Sarah H. Buss via OE <
oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

> Me too 80 last December. That got my attention more than any “just one
> more”  birthday ever had.  But I am grateful for the challenge. ☺️
> Sarah
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jul 11, 2018, at 4:41 PM, Del Morrill via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> wrote:
>
> When I chose racquetball as my choice of aerobic exercise over the boredom
> of fixtures, there were some who worried that I might fall. This I have
> done more than once, but as I explained to them, If I “might” fall, I’d
> rather do it while enjoying something than falling in our home doing
> nothing interesting.
>
>
>
> *From:* OE <oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net> *On Behalf Of *Jean Long via
> OE
> *Sent:* Monday, July 9, 2018 7:35 AM
> *To:* Order Ecumenical Community <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>; Jean Long <
> jean.long512 at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* Jean Long <jean.long512 at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79
>
>
>
> What a group!!
>
> Thanks for your reflections on a wonderful time in life many of us have
> reached.  You can't know what being 80 is like until you get "up in years"
> as my mom would say.  I'm only 78 but I claim 80 because it causes such
> wonder in me. This is me, Jean Long, being 80!!!  I promised myself when I
> was 12 that I would never be "old" like my aunts and uncles sitting in
> their rocking chairs on their farmhouses in Iowa (and they were only in
> their 60's).  ...and I have succeeded.  First thing in the morning, when I
> don't remember yet that  I am 80ish, I can't figure out why my back is so
> stiff.  Except for fibromyalgia, which has weakened my legs I have all my
> faculties.  I wouldn't trade one ache or pain - or the insights that I have
> about life from this plateau - for a young body and the beginning glimmers
> of wisdom of anything younger than 50.
>
>
>
> When I think of someone who is 80 I don't think of any of you - Randy,
> Claire, John, Lynda, et al.,   The spirit in all of us - the yes to life we
> demonstrate - allows our presence to be a beacon, a call to something
> different.
>
>
>
> We chose to be chosen - and that has made all the difference.
>
>
>
> Continued Grace & Peace is yours,
>
> Jean Long
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 6, 2018 at 1:51 PM, Jann McGuire via OE <
> oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>
> I so appreciate your witness, John and this entire string
>
>
>
> I turned 81 on June 11. As I recall the phases, 60-80 was Elderhood and at
> 80, we enter Sage-hood. . While that implies wisdom, with the memory lapses
> I'm experiencing, I feel less, not more wise. On the positive side, staying
> in the present moment isn't such a challenge, since I can't remember much
> of the past.
>
>
>
> Here we go on another adventure around our great Sun. Happy birthday, John.
>
>
>
> Jann
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 6, 2018 at 4:02 AM Randy Williams via OE <
> oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>
> So Lynda, a similar experience. Several years ago when my 2 oldest
> grandsons were about 4 and 6 years old, they were having a day out with
> “Grandy,” their name for me. At a point the younger one, Josh, turns to me
> and says, “Grandy, you sure are big. You eat too much.” The older one,
> Devin, sensing this was not an entirely appropriate thing for Josh to have
> said to his grandfather, retorts. “Josh, he doesn’t eat too much, he’s just
> old.” What a great illustration this would have been in the Christ lecture
> for the moment grace strikes. Josh and Devin are now 23 and 25 year old
> men, but I’m still their Grandy.
>
> Randy
>
>
> On Jul 5, 2018, at 7:28 PM, Lynda C via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> wrote:
>
> It’s like the joy of a Senior Discount!  I taught VBS this summer to a
> class of 4 year olds, with the able assistance of Lyndon, our 14 year old
> granddaughter (Jono’s).  One little boy, out of the blue, said, “you are
> really old, aren’t you?”  I smiled and told him he was correct, but I felt
> really young at heart being with such a smart class.
>
>
>
> Lynda  (78)
>
>
>
> *From: *OE <oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of OE List <
> oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> *Reply-To: *OE List <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> *Date: *Thursday, July 5, 2018 at 12:37 AM
> *To: *OE List <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> *Cc: *Paul Schrijnen <pschrijnen at aol.com>
> *Subject: *Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79
>
>
>
> A fine reflection John. Thank you.
>
>
>
> What has begun to happen to me is that people on the London Underground
> have started to offer me a seat. As someone born 16 years after you, you
> can imagine the range of feelings that such civility causes. But when this
> happens on the way home from the airport after delivering a 5-day programme
> I am just grateful - glad to get of my feet and rest my weary bones….
>
>
>
> Best wishes to you and all,
>
>
>
> Paul
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Paul Schrijnen
> 13 Bloemfontein Avenue
> London W12 7BJ
> paul.schrijnen at gmail.com
> +44 7973 206 766
> skype: paulus.schrijnen
>
>
>
>
> On 4 Jul 2018, at 22:47, John Epps via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> *Earthrise @ 79*
>
> Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at
> Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on
> the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were
> leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were
> white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore
> and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could
> obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they
> struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank
> you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer
> to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of
> reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail.
>
> Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than
> at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and
> welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness
> that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not
> welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it
> takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have
> ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone
> wrong (to use a phrase from JWM).
>
> Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades.
>
> This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never
> examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a
> century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying.
> Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and
> people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from
> nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of
> their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other
> business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others
> float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give
> their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the
> waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed
> with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change
> not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than
> it was before. So is everyone….”
>
> This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about
> our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I
> don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as
> one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but
> when it does, it’s well worth celebrating.
>
> John Epps
>
>
>
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