This summer I decided to purge my
home of mystery boxes. Admit it, you have them too. Those boxes you packed and
moved to your home years ago because you could not possibly live without the
contents, however years later the boxes remain unopened.
Opening my mystery boxes has been a
trip down memory lane but it also has reminded me how important letting go is
in order to move on.
One of my favorite quotes on this
subject is by Daphne Rose Kingma:
“Holding on is
believing that there’s only a past, letting go is knowing that there is a
future. “
Another of my favorite quotes on
this subject is by Susan Fay West: “The mental and physical space we
create by letting go of things that belong in our past gives us...the option to
fill the space with something new.”
Letting go of not only old letters,
newspaper clippings, and old pay stubs, but also our old self-identities, old
grudges, and old hurts.
More often than not, the letting-go
process is one of the most difficult things we have to do in life.
Imagine being a resident
of long-term-care facility with no one visiting with you and you had to let go
of your home, some degree of your independence, your self-identity, and in many
cases, your good health. You would have to handle all the letting-go issues by
yourself. Facilities’ staff members do their best to help residents adjust, but
sometimes there is not enough staff and not enough time to personally do this
with each resident.
This is where Betty Brewer’s Angels volunteers
step in to help. By their weekly visits with the same person, friendships
develop. These friendships give opportunities
to discuss the past in order to sort things out, focus on the good memories and to remind
the residents that as long as we are alive, we are given the gift of a future
that we can choose to handle in a positive way, no matter the situation.
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Have
you ever thought about being a Betty Brewer’s Angel volunteer but because of
other obligations do not think you would have the time for a weekly commitment? The solution may be to become a “Fill-In”
volunteer. We need people who can fill
in for Betty Brewer’s Angels volunteers, who due to personal circumstances,
cannot for several weeks visit with the resident they have chosen. The “Fill-In” volunteer would fill that void. “Fill-In” volunteers receive the same
training and support as full-time volunteers.
