UPS & DOWNS, April 1999

WAYFARERS' HOUSE NEWS

CONGRATULATIONS to Jean in starting a job at McDonald's, to Jong on her new job at The Iron Skillet, to Denise, Mandy, and Tray'Von on their move to a new apartment, to Shonie and Pat and Sharon on their new housing and to Joan on her April birthday!

Welcome to Jessica and Mark, Robin, Joan, Gayle, Layla and Michelle.

Farewell and good wishes to Stephanie; Denise, Mandy and Tray; Sharon; Shonie and Pat.

MEETING GROUND ANNUAL MEETING at CLAIRVAUX FARM on Sunday, May 23, at 3 p.m.; dinner to follow at 5 p.m.

Our thanks to former resident Mandy for the following poetry she contributed:

Sleep On
Sleep on,
Now that your earthly life is gone
Sleep on,
Now that you're not suffering
Sleep on,
Now that you have no aches and pain
Sleep on,
In a place where it doesn't rain
Sleep on,
In hopes to see you someday
Sleep on,
'Cause I love you and that's all I can say.

My Heart
My heart is bleeding, and
My love is grieving to give to you.
At night I cry boo-hoo tears, and
Death I no longer can fear.
But at night when I cry,
I ask myself why, oh why did you have to die?

No Longer Love
I do love you, yes, this is true
Because you were my first love
But I am no longer in love with you.
It was wonderful in the beginning
You holding my hand, at the beach
At dawn with me in your arms
Watching the waves polish the grains of sand,
You took me to dinner, a fancy place I suppose,
And to top it off you gave me a rose
With a lovely poem that would set any fire ablaze.

After that it was all just a daze.
No more walks at the beach.
After two months passed, at that instant I knew
It wasn't going to last ,
But I held on because I was in love.
I thought that heaven sent me a dove.
I tried to make it work by doing romantic things on my own,
But it takes two to know love was nearly gone.
Quickly it faded ad you thought it was better to hang out with your boyz,
But your boyz couldn't give you all the love, satisfaction ad joy.
So please don't ask me why.
Just know you were my first love.
But some things just never last.
That's why I love, but I'm not in love.
It's a thing in the past.

GROUPS Reminder to residents and former residents: You are welcome to join the groups meeting at Wayfarers':

Art Group led by Leona Papagno, Wed. from 10 a.m. to noon.

Parenting Group led by Mary Jo Williams and Esther Smith, Wed. From 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Bible Study led by Schaunel Steinnagel, Thurs., 7:30 p.m.

NEEDS

Sheets, towels, pillow cases, pillows, twin beds, mattresses and bunk beds, luggage (especially helpful for moving into permanent housing), and large freezer storage bags (for dividing government surplus food items into appropriate amounts for food boxes given upon request).

from Renie Newman
Continuing needs:
Paper products -- paper napkins, towels, toilet tissue
Baby products -- diapers of all sizes
Plastic trash bags -- large

Once in a while an unusual author comes to our attention. We thought you might appreciate the thoughts of Anne Lamott in her book Traveling Mercies. The following paragraphs are from the chapter of the same name in that volume. (U&D)

Broken things have been on my mind lately because so much has broken in my life this year and in the lives of the people I love -- hearts, health, confidence. Our wonderful friend Ken Nelson died of AIDS just the other day, and that was terribly painful. Then not long after, my old friend Mimi, the mother of my junior doubles partner Bee, began to die after a long struggle with a rare blood disease.

Our preacher Veronica said recently that this is life's nature: that lives and hearts get broken -- those of people we love, those of people we'll never meet. She said that the world sometimes feels like the waiting room of the emergency ward and that we who are more or less OK for now need to take the tenderest possible care of the more wounded people in the waiting room, until the healer comes. You sit with people, she said , you bring them juice and graham crackers.

And then she went on vacation.

"Traveling mercies," the old people at our church said to her when she left. This is what they always say when one of us goes off for a while.

Traveling mercies: love the journey, God is with you, come home safe and sound.