I was reading an essay about Meaningful Thinking and living in the moment. One of the class members raised her hand and asked me: “but isn’t meditation just like making art?” one of them asked me, as heads around the table nodded up and down.
“It has the same calming effect on us,” another said.
Yes, I said a great observation. There is a similarity.
This was so true I insisted that we talk about it. And we did.
( Need Help! The Mansion aides say the residents always draw and burn through art markers. I’ve been buying them as fast they run out, but I’m getting low on Mansion Fund money, as usual, and I’m asking for help in getting a lot of art coloring markers to the Activities room; the residents are excited about their art and. and drawing with those markers day and night. “We can’t keep them fast enough, ” says Paryese, the Activities Director. Please consider sending some markers to the Mansion, address Paryese Bates Becker, The Mansion, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Thank you. If you don’t care to purchase them online, you can send a check to me, Jon Katz, Mansion Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. And thanks.)
We had a great talk about how living in the low eliminates all kinds of anger and anxiety. You don’t get ahead, you don’t look bad, you focus on where you are at the moment. It’s easy to underestimate the intelligence of people in assisted care. They don’t often get a chance to stretch their minds. Art activities seem to be doing it.
The residents got the idea; we talked about it to lunch. We also practiced deep breathing, which the residents said made a huge difference. The class is working out beautifully; I can’t wait to get there on Fridays and share and teach what I am learning.
I have learned a lot from the residents; hopefully, they will learn some things from me. They insist that they are. We’ve come a long way together in the class; we’re still in progress.
Meditation, I said, brings the body into the work. “When body and mind are together,” writes Thich Nhat Hanh, “you are fully president. You are fully alive, and you can touch the wonders of life that are available in the here and the now.”
Sharon, a Mansion resident, has been an influential class member. She is a published poet and brings me a poem almost weekly if she’s up to it. Sharon is sick and has been in the hospital often. She’s never quit writing her poems.
She’s a valued friend.
I love the meditation class; it means the world to me, and I hope it is helpful to them. The love at the table is overwhelming.
Here is the one she brought me today. I look forward to her poems; there is so much life in them:
“My Dear Love,
My love begins and ends with you. I can’t imagine my life without you,
So close, but so far away!
I’ve known you for over 40 years, working towards fifty.
Someday, our life will be through, but I’ll be happy because I will hopefully be with you.
The first time I heard you laugh or saw your smile, I knew it was edited.
I still feel you as much as I did then.
Some people are just meant to be!”
Below, Jane is using one of the markers.
