Pastor's Message

July 2009
                                                                                          

SPIRIT STEPS

Al has been in the hospice for over four weeks now.  Before he entered the hospice, there was concern that he wouldn’t be alive long enough to get there.  That concern has been replaced with a concern of how long this taxing process will go on.  There are ups and downs on a daily basis.  One day he is able to carry on something of a conversation and the next day it seems he won’t make it through the next hour, only to have him wake up and ask for something to eat.

Al dedicated his life to teaching.  During his long career in the public schools he pulled together hundreds of individual student musicians and formed of them numerous orchestras playing as one.  In his life he taught an appreciation of music and in his dying he may be doing some of the most important teaching of his life.  In his life he taught music and in his dying he is teaching spiritual values.  Family and friends that are close to him are his reluctant students; reluctant not to learning, reluctant to be in this situation.

He is teaching them about patience and endurance.  He is teaching them about living in the present moment.  He is teaching them to look realistically at how their interrelationships work.  And he is giving them time; time to resolve their angers, time to experience life without him, time to grieve.  In his life he was a good teacher; in his dying, it may turn out that he is a great teacher.

The lessons are difficult.  The learning does not come easily nor is it without a great deal of pain and suffering.   There are close, tender moments that the learners wish could go on.  There are sad, angry moments that the learners would like to avoid completely.  In all of this is the importance of the moment; the moment, with the certain knowledge that each could be the last.  Oh that that knowledge could be carried throughout the rest of life.

 Today is Father’s Day.  Al is awake and alert after a two day sleep.  Bethe has brought him pictures of the family which were taken while he was still at home on Easter.  He smiles, taking time to savor each picture before he carefully arranges the pictures on his hospital table.  They share a teaspoon of wine and sit quietly as she holds his hand.  Bethe tells him that they have now shared fifty Father’s Days but that this one is the best because there are no distractions; no TV, no dinner to prepare and clean up after, no party, just time for the two of them to be together.  In his quiet raspy voice he whispers, “No distractions”.

In this life we are given one moment at a time.  Some of  the moments of life require patience and endurance, some are dedicated to relationship, some are happy and some are sad but let us learn to live each moment with no distractions savoring whatever the moment brings, living life to its fullest.

May you have peace in this moment.

 

Pastor Bob