For the second week, I brought books to my meditation class. These are the books they have been asking for.

I gave Art another automobile book, and he began to cry and came over to me and said I was the best man he had ever known. He asked me how I could find these books, and he has been up for several nights reading them. It was so easy to make Art so happy, and I am getting him more books next week.

I’m getting June some of the Agatha Christie books she loves, Susan, books with pictures of animals (she sleeps with the books), and Sharon, a published poet who is seriously ill; I’m getting a book for every day she is in the hospital. Nancy loves old Nancy Drew books. It costs me $60 to $70 to get these used books.

(I’ve ordered three Boogie pads and 100 yards of decorating paper so the Mansion residents can put posters and art on their front doors. The Boogie pads stimulate thinking and problem solving; the residents can make their own words out of the letters chosen for them.)

I am on pins and needles about the Mansion; the new owners have yet to talk to the staff or residents about their plans for the future. I don’t know their plans, but I am worried about it. I plan to keep working with the residents to the bitter end if it comes to that – the new owners are supposed to come to the Mansion this week and talk with the staff and, hopefully, the residents.

I hope you will follow me to the end if it comes to that, and if not, to keep helping the residents.

Mansion Fund. Contribute via Paypal, [email protected] or Venmo, Jon Katz@Jon Katz-13 or by check, Jon Katz, Mansion Fund, P.O.Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Thanks.

(Maria, showing the residents her meditation and peace bowl from Tibet. We’re both going to show the flag)

Today, I bought three Boogie pads. The residents love to make words out of them, and these reusable pads will make them happy and busy.

This morning, we talked about gratitude for the small things in life, helping us to see life from a more realistic and accepting point of view. We also meditated for 8 minutes, our longest meditation together yet. I ask the residents each week what would make them comfortable, and they choose the length. We close our eyes and sink into the quiet and the peaceful.

Maria came this morning and played music on her music and meditation bowl. She also read some poems by Robert Frost. The new owners are coming Thursday, and we hope to learn more about their plans for the future of the Mansion.

Two artists meet and hug Maria and Jane from Memory Care. I got a lovely hug also.

Claudia and Ellen listen to the meditation and music bowl used by monks in Tibet.

Rachel listening to the meditation reading.

From my reading today:

“Joy is an impulse within us, not simply a temporary reaction to something outside us. Joyfulness is a state of mind that can either be ignored – as in “bah, humbug,” – or cultivated – as in the personal decision to have a merry Christmas or a happy birthday or a great day in the hammock reading a good book. It’s all our own choice.”