Monday, December 26, 2011

Another Dear Friend

I have another dear friend who has become special to me for many reasons.  She is delightful, loves to smile and laugh, and shares a name with my beautiful grandmother.  "Mabel" loves the outdoors, birds, fresh air, and all that nature has to offer.  Presently she is cooped up in a double room not side by side as we would all hope, but split down the middle by a privacy curtain that is constantly drawn.  She cannot see outside unless she goes into the dining room, and she cannot manage that herself.  As I visit nursing homes, I am often scratching my head wondering who in the world designed them!  
Mabel and I have delightful visits.  She loves to laugh and tell me about growing up as part of a large  farm family.  She told me the other day that she and I are going to "do some big things together".   She would love to take a few road trips, but for now, I would love to find her some bird recordings and a way to play them in her room.  It would be so much more pleasant than the sound of blaring daytime tv that is her constant white noise.  
There are people in our lives that make us want to be great people and do great things.  Mabel is one of those people for me.  If I can't help her, she has fanned a flame in me that will not be extinguished until I can successfully help others like her.  To Mabel and me, being able to see what beauty mother nature creates every day should be seen and treasuredTo be able to crack a window in any weather and fill your lungs with fresh outside air, should be a basic right.  To watch birds at a feeder, or squirrels scrounge for food, would provide hours of enjoyment that tv never can.  
Once again, I remember touring Judy Berry's Lakeview Ranch .... I recently got a phone call from my nephew who had visited Lakeview, and he told me that he and his companion were moved to tears more than once.  Judy is working magic, and freely and lovingly shares all that she knows to whomever will listen.  She wants her concept of treating the elderly with dignity and love to expand and multiply exponentially!  I do too.   Last week I dedicated one of my morning walks to my friend Mabel and had a running dialog in my head about the beauty that was all around me and how alive I felt, so that I could remember to tell her everything.
I dedicate the photo of the rose-breasted grosbeak, Mabel's favorite bird, to her as well. 

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