Stuff - Getting rid of books - Terry

My mom is trying to get rid of some of her stuff and since her books are among her prized possessions, this is a difficult task. I, too, love books, and have had a major shift in my thinking over the past several years. I used to say that a book wasn't worth reading unless there were things in it I could underline and quote. But I have changed my ways now that I've joined the Paperback Swap. I don't have enough room to keep my own personal library and so was looking for a way to get rid of my beloved books. For awhile, I gathered them and sold them at a local book store, using the in-store credit to buy still more books.

But with the growth of the internet, getting rid of a favorite book doesn't mean it's gone forever. You can always buy or swap it back, if you need it again. I listed many of my personal books on the swapping site, made a wish list of books I'd like to read, and it has been a great way to pass on books I've read, as well as get the books I'd like to read for very little cost. I don't spend money on new books now; I just list desired books on my wish list and wait until they are available. Then I use the points from the books I've swapped to get a new book. The only cost to me is the media rate cost for mailing the books I ship. I now have a pile of books, just waiting for me, where in the past I was always on the search for the next good book.

My husband has resisted this option for some time, but recently I convinced him that he can keep a list of those books he's sure he'll want to read again some day, and if he ever does want them, I'll just order them for him again. We don't underline in our books now; we copy things that we want to remember, so that our books can be sold back. Now if I underline in and keep a book, I know it is a very important book to me and will be saved.

By the way, you can also swap CDs and DVDs!

A Grandmother's Hands Revisited - Leona

I appreciated Donna's story about her hands. Mine look more like my
Grandmother's all of the time. I not only have the huge blue snake-
like veins, but I have brown freckles that are expanding into what
some have called "age spots." If I think about it too much I could
really feel embarrassed and depressed.

But recently I went to the zoo with my grandson and found my Grandma hands to be appendages of quiet and wonder. By staying very, very still and holding my hand quietly in front of him, a beautiful butterfly found a spot to visit. Neither my grandson nor the colorful butterfly cared about these tell-tale signs of age. In fact, my hand became a launch pad for an exquisite experience!

Stuff: Part One - Terry

“A home is like a reservoir equipped with a check valve. The valve permits influx but prevents outflow. Acquisition goes on day and night, smoothly, subtly, imperceptibly. I have no sharp taste for acquiring things, but it’s not necessary to desire them. Goods and chattel seek a man out. They find him even though his guard is up.” E. B. White, "Essays."

E. B. White is much better known for Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. But his essays are a delight and he starts our discussion of stuff so perfectly. I came across this quote in the middle of my last move and identified completely. The essay is hilarious, beginning like this:

"For some weeks now I have been engaged in dispersing the contents of this apartment, trying to persuade hundreds of inanimate objects to scatter and leave me alone. It is not a simple matter. I am impressed by the reluctance of one’s worldly goods to go out again into the world."

I brag about the fact that there is a box waiting to be filled and transported to Goodwill in my house at all times. I do seriously make a trip to Goodwill almost weekly, usually with a small box of belongings, but still we have too much stuff. I believe this is one of the big challenges of aging: How do we part with our stuff? And when do we part with our stuff? And who will have to do the work of parting with our stuff if we don't keep working at it?

I made a pact with myself several years ago to seriously begin to get rid of stuff. I had just stopped in at an estate sale, hoping to nab some good stuff, and was aghast to find an elderly woman's entire life laid out for the public to peruse. Our stuff loses it's value and has the possibility of this type of an end. When I came across a table displaying this woman's bras, I made a pact to begin getting rid of the things my children won't be needing or wanting. I can't promise that I've done a great job of fulfilling that pact, but I am working on it. Since my husband and I keep moving to smaller places, we have had to let things go, but we have not yet stopped accumulating, so the task remains.

Stay tuned for many parts to this thread on "stuff."

Sharing the Burden - Leona

On April 17, 2008, eleven of us boarded the plane to travel to Chisinau, Moldova! We were a team assembled to minister alongside of the pastors and people of Bethany Baptist Church. It was amazing to see how this group had come together – eight from Seattle, one from Bellingham, and two from Chicago. Our ages ranged from 47-82 and we were on a mission to minister to the older people whose needs had gripped our hearts.

I was excited to see how God was going to use us. I knew that the elderly in Moldova would feel loved and valued by this team. I also knew that the individuals traveling with us would never be the same. I had no idea what would become of this, but I knew it was the beginning of something revolutionary!

We took money, soup mix, new clothes, books and tons of art supplies. We wanted to share life and color in this gray land. We had the privilege of feeding old people, holding hands with infirmed, playing with street children, sharing communion with former communists, and best of all, listening to the stories of grace and survival.

We have returned determined to continue developing a relationship with these incredible people. Residents at two different retirement communities (Seattle and Chicago) are raising funds to help supply food for the hot lunch program. Our team members are sharing the story of their experiences. A small group is praying for direction for next steps.

We are looking at the calendar to see when we can go again.

Meanwhile the situation in Moldova is only growing worse for the elderly. News reports from June 17 indicate a growing desperation and hopelessness.
We must not quit.

Visiting Moldova - Leona

In May 2007 I made my first journey to Chisinau, Moldova. Accompanied by my husband and son, I saw for the first time what Leila had described to me. We found a once beautiful city marred by the effects of a corrupt government and a collapsed economy. We met a still beautiful people who loved their homeland but were beaten down by the daily struggle to find food and stay warm.

This former Soviet Union country is notably now the poorest country in Europe. Moldova’s children and elderly are oppressed and the middle aged and young are fleeing to other countries to find work. Young beautiful women are prime targets for human trafficking.

Amidst the overwhelming struggle for survival is a growing Christian movement. Churches are springing up all around the city and surrounding villages as people find love, hope and strength through a new relationship with Christ. One of these churches is Bethany Baptist in the Ciocano district of Chisinau. The pastors and people of this church have a heart for the people of its community, including the elderly.

While we were there the church held a special luncheon for the elderly in the community. It was like the ones they had done regularly before losing the funding. The grateful attendees were anxious to share their stories with us. We met women who showed us their bankbooks that once calculated a simple but growing retirement fund. Now the accounts were completely empty. They had lost everything in 1991 when the USSR collapsed. Their current pensions of $30-50 per month barely covered the cost of utilities, much less food and certainly not medicines or sufficient health care.

We vowed to bring their story back to the U.S. We promised that we would return and that somehow we would help feed the older people of Moldova. It was a calling we could not ignore.

An insight from El Salvador - Terry

This post was scheduled by me prior to my trip as I will have no internet access during this week (how will I survive?) As the leader of this year's trip, I have been immersed in information about our village, Agros, and El Salvador. On my first trip to the village, I noticed the quality of the houses. There is another Agros village nearby and that village has houses that were built by Habitat for Humanity. I wondered why our village hadn't gotten new houses and was hopeful that they would someday have that opportunity. Recently I heard that our village leaders chose to build their houses themselves out of bamboo and adobe for the following reasons:

1. Payback on Habitat homes begins immediately and they wanted to pay off their land first.
2. Wooden houses are hotter than mud and bamboo.
3. Wooden houses don't stop bullets. In an adobe house, the bullets gets lodged in the walls.

This is a huge lesson regarding our inability to totally comprehend what is needed and helpful when we come in as outsiders for a short "mission" trip. We who have never had to worry about war within our own boundaries have no idea what that would be like. I am humbled by my own naivity and open to learning more.

The Least, the Lost, the Left Behind - Leona

“Someday I will come and help you feed the old people in your country.”

They were words that flowed out of a heart deeply touched during a conversation with a young woman from the country of Moldova in Eastern Europe. Surprisingly, they were MY words! The moment they were uttered I knew my life would never be the same.

I had been asked to meet a young woman from Moldova named Leila. She was studying for a year at the University of Washington through the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program. She had expressed interest in understanding the systems of care for elderly persons in the U.S. and so a friend suggested she meet me. Of course, I was delighted to wax eloquent about the abundant options for eldercare and how I had been privileged to work in many of them.

Leila listened to me with interest and then her dancing eyes suddenly clouded with intense sadness. She began to tell me of the old people in Moldova who were starving because they do not have the money to buy food. Her church had offered a hot lunch program where they served soup and bread to some of the most vulnerable elders in their community. The church no longer had the funds to offer this and Leila felt sure that many were suffering as a result.

I have never felt such searing pain in my soul as I did during those moments. I have spent my life developing services and programs to meet the emotional, physical and spiritual needs of older people. The thought of elders starving to death was completely reprehensible.

I knew I needed to do something. And thus began my relationship with a tiny country called Moldova and the hungry grandmas and grandpas who needed food. That meeting with Leila was in February 2006. Little did I know where this conviction toward compassion would lead me. Read more in the days ahead.

Missions and Poverty - Terry

Lest you begin to think that we will only be writing about our aging bodies and the woes thereof, I wanted to start a new thread. This is about our shared interest in the area of poverty and what we as Christians can do in the world -- something we can do that will only be a small bandaid, but will at least be a step in the right direction.

If you watched Leona & Dick's film, you would have noticed that one of the doors that their seniors open is the door of missions. Both Leona and I have become deeply involved in a couple of mission endeavors. You will be hearing about them from us along the way. But I am about to leave for 8 days to visit a village in El Salvador. This is a village brought into being by Agros International. If you are interested in the work of Agros, please check out their website. I have been involved with Agros for several years now, first as a volunteer in the office and now as a person who cares deeply about a group of people in a small village in El Salvador called San Diego de Tenango. I visited this village last July and am co-leading a group that will return to the village this July. I am posting this on the day after my departure and can't wait to give updates of what we learned in the village on this trip.

What I learned last summer, however, is that there are people in many parts of the world who have so much less than we have, yet have more contentment than many of us ever achieve. Agros tells the story of a woman who suffered through many of the ravages of Civil War and lives a very simple life with no amenities as we define them. Yet, she stated that she had need of nothing and was happy and contented with what she had. That is the lesson for me.

I took this picture as we walked behind Rosalio, returning from planting cashew trees, in the hopes of getting the villagers beyond subsistence crops so that they could begin to pay back the loan from Agros for their land. In the end, they will own their land. I love this picture, mostly for what it brings to my mind. Please pray for our team of 14 members and for our experience in El Salvador.

Coming Monday!

Beginning Monday, please join us for a 5-day series on missions.

On mouse holes - Terry speaks

I suffer from the usual aging annoyance of marching into a room with great certainty and forgetting completely why I am there. I retrace my steps, hoping that something along the way will jog my memory and get me back on track. Or I hurry to my computer, sit down, and can’t remember what was so pressing that needed my immediate attention and 3 or 4 emails later, get up and remember that I was in the middle of a recipe. I go to the grocery store, leaving my list on the counter at home.

I am at a total loss to remember to bring my eco-friendly grocery bags into the store. We here in Washington are being hounded to bring our own grocery bags and I am dedicated to the idea. But the few times I have finally remembered and gone back to the car to pick up the bags, they were at home by the front door. I have requested a huge sign outside the grocery store saying: “Don’t forget your bags.” There is one store here that has done just that. Now I forget to read the sign.

If my husband takes a day off that isn’t his usual day off, I am out of sync all week. Two times last Saturday I tried to remind my husband to turn on the radio and listen to the sermon since we had to miss our usual Sunday service. The second time he reminded me it was only Saturday, he had a strange, knowing look on his face. I wonder if he thinks I’m losing it. I wonder at times if I am.

But this is even worse. I do this every day. Yesterday I went up to our loft to get a box. While there I noticed the guest bed and decided to change the sheets. The phone rang. I hurried down and answered it. Someone wanted a name and address. I sat at my computer to find the name, then read some email, followed a link somewhere. Before long I remembered the project for which I needed a box, and went up to the loft. And there I finished making the bed. I begin the day with a list of goals that really must be accomplished, if not by the end of the day, then soon. I am like this hound:

The fable is told about a bloodhound who started a hunt chasing a stag. A fox crossed the path, so the hound chased the fox. After a while a rabbit crossed the path, so the hound went after the rabbit. Later, a mouse crossed the path and the hound ended up chasing the mouse into a hole. The hound began his hunt on the trail of a magnificent stag and ended up watching a mouse hole!

Being computer addicted certainly does contribute to watching a lot of mouse holes. Some are fun and worthwhile, while others are deep holes down which one can fall and not surface for hours at a time. So please, don’t ask me what I do all day. I probably won’t remember.

(Mouse hole Photo by Hot Grill, shared via Flickr)