Chaplain's Corner

There is a difference.

I have heard the stories about other facilities. No, I don’t gossip (that often), I just listen “very carefully” to what floats around in the air. And what I hear is that Signature facilies have an aura about them. One traveling, medical professional gave a competitor facility a “F” because of the “backstabbing” going on and she gave us an “A” because she feels peace and calm when she steps through our door.

I feel that the good will and love have increased here during my stay though not necessarily because of it. But I do feel that the Chaplaincy has brought peace, hope and even prosperity to Signature. We are like Sun Tea, it takes a while for the sun to heat the water so that the tea can flood the glass jar, but we have brought goodness and hope to nursing over time. That is just the way I see it after four years of listening to the word on the street.

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A National Day of Prayer True Story.

I have to tell this story. If I don’t, I will pop open and Snickers Bars and Slim Jims will fly everywhere.

So, at today’s Bible study a resident rolls in and says, “Today I want you to pray for me to stop smoking. I am quitting today. I want this addiction out of my life.” I have known her for four years and she has smoked everyday of those years and to my knowledge has never asked for help to stop smoking.

A minute, another resident whose word is trustworthy eases in and said that her private prayer request was for someone in the smoking break group would quit.

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How does one get hurt and disappointment disentangled from the net of the heart?

I don’t know, but today I will try.

Here is my plan. First, I may to pray a real, uncensored prayer. Next, I might even talk to a trusted someone and then I may well even try to disentangle someone else’s hurt from the net of their heart. To top it off, I will have a few yuks with my stakeholder buds.

That is what we chaplains do every day even if we never fully disentangle our own hearts.

Then. I may motor to the talking Atlantic…watch the waves… strain to see Spain….and eat a fried shrimp of two dozen at Barnacle Bob’s.

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Our Admissions coordinator was giving a family tour to a couple recently. Mr. B. was touring to move his sister closer to home. His sister is in the facility in Rockwood, and had also been in our Pigeon Forge facility. I had known her from my banking job for many years.

As they completed the tour, I was able to be introduced to them. Their first response was their thankfulness for chaplains and loving staff in the buildings. Their love for my team-partner Chaplain Brian at Rockwood was evident. They were appreciative of his compassionate heart, his love, and his patience. We shared several stories together about her stay.

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We have two natures as Christians.

One is serious; the other is carefree and fun.

They are both of God. I pray and I dance. I notice the quirky in life and I pour my heart out to God in dire need like a desert monk down to his last crust of bread. Sometimes, we think that the serious is the only way and that often turns us into drudges and H2O saturated blankets.

At this morning’s leadership meeting, we laughed and laughed and would not stop chortling, and guffawing and it was wonderful. Most productive morning congress ever!

We are both serious and silly and both are sanctioned by the Spirit.

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My life is a circle.

Sometimes I laugh, but then I am sad, but then I laugh again.

Sometimes I am too religious, and then I am not, and then I am again.

Once and a while I am harsh, mostly not for a long while, and then unsympathetic redux.

Once and a while I feel found, then lost, then found again.

God is close, then absent, and then my BFF again. And so it goes.

I am Larry. You are Alice, Tom, Malik, or Shanese and this is the story of our lives whether we live in Sarasota or Swaziland, and I think that we should graciously flow with the movement of the circle and not take ourselves too seriously at any of its segments.

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Activities Directors and Chaplains go together like Starbucks and coffee, Barak and Michelle, and Bar-b-q and napkins.

We are a team. We do the same kind of work in that we bring joy to the soul and in turn we know that a happy soul fuels healing.

Spiritual Directors bring spirituality and joy to Activities and Activities brings fun and spontaneity to what could be a very boring, dry as a desert spirituality.

Because Spirituality and Activities know that God’s work involves Bible study and Proms, prayer along with bingo, bedside counseling plus indoor-horse racing, piety as well as play, bedside visits plus trips out to dig into a bright plate of Cajun Food, healing touch and dancing with local firemen on Valentine’s Day.

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Warning!

Do not limit the voice of God. It is everywhere.

So I am driving to work this morning and fuming over a certain someone at work who had really frosted my English muffin. I set my mind to work on a solution. I talk out loud in the car. I fret. I growl. Nothing.

I turn on the radio and grump.

Then I glance at the passenger seat; pick up the top book of a pile, open it to a story about an ancient Zen Buddhist poetry contest in China and the first poem scans:

”The mind is like a mirror. It collects dust. The problem is to remove the dust.”

The second shorter entry read,

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Ms. Thelma, who is over 95 years old, invited me into her room today to talk with her and to pray with her. She began to reminisce about when she was a young teenage girl working in the tobacco fields, and chasing rabbits in those fields that eventually ended up on their dining room table for supper.

As we talked about all kinds of “wild game” her and I both have eaten over the years, from Elk down to Frog Legs, we were both laughing and thanking God for great memories with our loved one’s that have gone on, and for the family, friends, and faith that we have while here today. This precious lady blessed her Chaplain today.

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As you know, we are studying though the Bible in eight years with our residents. (Job Security!) Right now we are wandering through the desert of Deuteronomy. It’s not Hemingway.

I rarely think about the study before we do it twice a week. At the last minute, I pluck my tattered, soiled, and rebound, college RSV from the desk and then I sit down without fanfare or buildup and start reading where we left off, and everyone talks, people interrupt, one or two talk about things that are in no way related and they will not stop. Some sleep; others roll out the door and do whatever they do. Others roll in at the tail end and seem to listen.

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