Upon hearing the news that she would be receiving funds from our Spiritual Growth Assistance Fund for a second year, Marlene Wiebe from Gretna, MB wrote:
"What very
good news. I extend my sincere thanks to Canadian Women. I am very gratified
and I am looking forward to one more year and then 6 more hours! You are making
it easier and giving me encouragement. Thank you so very much."
We had invited Marlene to come and share with us at our recent executive meeting but she was unable to attend. Instead she sent the following report.
Meditations for Mennonite Women Canada
By Marlene Kruger Wiebe
October 15, 2017
Dear Women,
I am reading a book of my own personal choice called
Aging as Spiritual Practice
by Lewis Richmond. It has inspired the following musings.
Also I am reading a fiction book called Flight Patterns by Karen White set in an
apiary so I open with a quotation from this book that has to do with issues around
aging.
I wanted to share some stories as I go about my practicum at a Senior citizens’
complex so you can taste a little of my experience -- this amazing experience that
you are helping to make possible. I cannot thank you enough for your generosity
to me. I recognize that you are working for the growth of God’s community of peace
as you support education for ministers. Your dedication is both inspiring and necessary.
Thank you for everything that you do.
❤Marlene
I dreamt - marvelous error!-
that I had a beehive
Here
inside my heart.
And the golden bees
Were making white combs
And sweet honey
From my old
failures.
Antonio Machado P.174 of Flight Patterns
1. Evanescence (to fade away or disappear)
“Letting go of what
is already slipping away is how we actually enjoy our life.” Shunyu Suzuki
The faces in the memory care unit wing change over the years.
After summer I returned to the unit to lead a devotional on caring more about others
than yourself. Bill and Isaac were two new faces for me so I introduced myself,
“I am Marlene.” As I was handing out the hymnals suddenly I heard Bill say from
behind me, “Hey, Carol!” I knew he meant me so I turned around and faced him.
“Which hymn is it?” He asked, and then, with a sparkle in his
eye, “Oh, and I hope you don’t mind me calling you Carol. I could not remember your
name.”
We chuckled. His memory was disappearing yet he rolled with it, accepted
it and had found a way to live with it. The moment was lightning quick, enjoyable
and poignant. It was much more telling than the little talk I had cooked up.
I will be forever grateful to Bill who offered a light in the
gathering darkness of memory loss with such grace and good nature.
2. Cherish
“The prayer is true because you are true.” Lewis Richmond
p.123.
Whenever I walk into a person’s apartment, I am always set to
be surprised. On one single tree, no two leaves are the same. In the same way, no
two people are the same. Everyone is entirely unique. The day I met Ruth, as usual
I started by asking about family.
“Oh, my daughter is a nurse and is so very smart
at math,” she exclaimed.
From family we moved onto chatting about her plants.
“ I have
6 plants. The trick is to water them while counting 1-2-3-4-5.” She explained.
“
I see where your daughter gets her love of math,” I remarked.
“Oh, I am a dummy.
I can’t remember stuff.”
“Forgetting stuff does not mean you are not smart,” I hastened
to point out, hurting for her. The moment went by, irretrievable, as we went onto
other topics.
Who is there to cherish Ruth? Obviously, God cherishes Ruth. Who is
there to tell Ruth that God cherishes her? That would be me. I echo Ruth in my heart,
“I am a dummy. Should have told her...” Who cherishes me? Who cherishes us all?
God does, of course, through the healing ministry of Jesus who definitely does not
look on us as dummies. Jesus heals failures with forgiveness.
Our truth is that
we need God’s help. We are dependent on God’s mercy as cherished children who are
lived and who love others. That is the truth of who we are, cherished by God, the
source of life in all of its goodness.
3. Vertical Time
In horizontal time “everything changes; everything is in
motion. In vertical time, however, everything is accessible; every possibility
is restful and free.”
Lewis Richmond p.83
One particular visit made an impression on me. When I slowly
opened the door because no one was answering my knock, I saw Annie asleep on the
couch with the radio was blaring. I woke her up with trepidation, not knowing what
else to do....
“Annie, do you need to sleep or would you like to visit?”
“Visit,” came her immediate and very loud reply.
The visit started
out with her not laughing at my humour and my laughing at her description of
the “KorbDycks” and the “BorschtDycks.” “It is not funny,” she cut my laughter short, “It was dumb.”
To
myself I thought that I had better pray and run away.
The conversation continued
to bump along until I drew it it to a close with a prayer.
“Why? Why do you have
to go?” She asked. “Stay. I will make coffee.” She was struggling to her feet and
positioning her walker. It had already been an hour, the suggested length of the
pastoral visit. We were going into overtime.
“OK, I could use some coffee,” I said.
She
offered me a tray of candy. Going to the frig she pulled out a huge glass jar of
shiny gray fish with dead but beady eyes staring at me.
“Don’t know how this got
here but it’s going to be supper,” She cheerfully announced.
I gulped.
We sat and
she began to share with me how her husband had struggled with mental illness,
and how the church had been judgmental. In spite of her mom’s protests she had married
him because she said, “who else would look after him?”
Time, in its predictable
march of past, present and future was becoming something else. It occurred to me
that her priorities in life were not to get ahead, or the most, or be the best.
Maybe she was an illustrating an experience of vertical time.
Richmond describes
vertical time as breathing in and out, resting in place, not going back to the past
nor moving forward to the future. “In vertical time, regret and worry do not disappear.
But they are no longer the only possibilities...When we include vertical time -
the timeless conviction of the present moment- we can find relief from the signposts
on horizontal time’s highway” (79).
I think Annie had learned to focus on the present
- candy, radio, companionship, longer visit, fish. She was alive in the present
having lived through some very trying times. Annie embraced vertical time and found
a way to meaning in life. The vast mystery of space, God’s transcendence, and God’s
merciful love for each person can be experienced more fully where horizontal and
vertical time meet. All around us are the many possibilities that God offers in
life.
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Thanks to our rep from Manitoba Kathy Giesbrecht and other staff at Mennonite Church Manitoba, we are excited to share our first video with you! Kathy interviews our two Spiritual Growth Assistance Fund recipients for
2017 - 2018: Marlene Wiebe from Gretna, MB and HyunHee
Kim from Winnipeg, MB (formerly from North Korea). 
Upon hearing the news that she would be receiving funds from our Spiritual Growth Assistance Fund for a second year, Marlene Wiebe from Gretna, MB wrote: 
