You do make a Difference

Dear Friends, April 21, 2007

I have many stories to share with you but instead have decided to share a comment my dear friend Mary Johns sent me .
Mary and I met some 25 years ago when she was the incoming nurse to Sunshine Acres Childrens Home in Mesa AZ. and I was the out going nurse. We met and became instant friends, though I moved away to Oregon, Calf, Pa and eventually to my little cabin in the Arkansas woods
Mary is a wonderful nurse, having served many years in home health and is now the school nurse for an intercity school in AZ , where she is doing a phenomenal job loving the children and teaching them, while bringing together the teachers and the parents. Mary is little in stature but big in heart. This is a true christen woman who gets things done.
I was honored that she attended my “Commissioning” in LA last Dec. and even more honored that she reads my blogs and comments weekly.
Following is last weeks comment :


...
Dear beloved friend, Marie,This little place in the world,where you peaceable tred is filled with it's own challenges, yes, but from all you witness to in word, deed and picture confirms the grace of a simpler and more authentic rhythm.
There are few innuendos. What is experienced and seen, cuts through to the heart and soul,no thick veneer or psycho babble. This must free up a tremendous amount of energy to focus on what is real and essential. These are simple souls, struggling, celebrating, grateful and able to share.
It is so evident you are adjusting to the rhythm and contributing your dance as well, even if it isn't on the Altar, like precious Miss Olivia. Thank you for bringing to the rest of us this incredible reality. What lessons for me and my family.

Here, in the US, we face so much ongoing trauma, and our attention spans are so short lived. It is shameful, but has become a means of surviving what seems out of control. We pray, we sacrifice, we examine and adjust our lives and we HOPE. But where you are, the need to be fully present to the immediate, seems to allow you to avoid so many distractions.

Marie, as my little life, among all my beloved K-6th graders and the school community, unfolds each day, it is as I am on a parallel track to yours. Only in the sense that so much love is required here, so much attentiveness, listening and wisdom, so much compassion. It is truly the simple things, the little words, gestures, homemade tokens of affection, unexpected joy and things to laugh about. It is the owies and booboos, the tragic home lives, the struggles so many immigrant families face that makes us kindred spirits. We make little 'Sunshine Acres" / Kisoro Mesa communities wherever we are, when we bring along the Love of Christ to infuse grace in every thought, word and deed....It makes a difference. Even if only in ones own home or workplace. We each simply must 'bloom where we are planted'...It is the common call we can each respond to. It can be as far away as you are, or right where we are.

So, as all of us who are blessed to know you, go about our moment to moments, we too, will try a little harder to: 'practice the presence of God' in the most ordinary tasks.
My mornings are your evenings and as I greet the day, with joy, you are tucking yours in, having spent yourself for others and ready for sleep to hopefully bring renewal. On my work days, just before our little school starts, from 7:00 am -7:30am, I walk twice (2 miles) around the park near here and sing praises with the morning birds. The mornings I can go to communion, my prayer is for a true sense of being a part of the Body of Christ, along with all others that day. And my prayers are especially united to yours at that time.....peace my friend, love ya and thinking of your little community there and all the people who will touch your life....Mary Johns.