Lawrence Community Matters November 2021

Lawrence Presbyterian Manor

Decluttering or Curating?

NOVEMBER 2021

By following principles of feng shui, rightsizing your home can help promote well-being

By Susan Schaefer

Thanksgiving perspectives

By Dinah Dutta, Chaplain We did not celebrate Thanksgiving Day while I grew up in India but celebrated a harvest festival at the end of November. It was a church family event. The celebration was a month-long preparation. We made crafts, mom and grandmom baked goodies. We also had a harvest festival bazaar.

We had a worship service focused on thankfulness. After the worship, we had a great feast. The proceedings by selling the goods went to families who are less privileged than us. The best tradition that I carry in my heart till this day and continue is my mom helping us make cards, writing the thank you notes to our mailman, milkman, teachers, doctors, Sunday school teachers, friends, and their parents, and delivering them with a box of goodies.

When I came to the U.S. almost thirty years ago, I learned how special Thanksgiving is. People travel wide and far to get together with their families and celebrate once a year. Our church family or colleagues invited us to enjoy the feast in their homes. After a few years, I decided to host Thanksgiving dinner for our international student families. I never cooked the turkey before. When I shared my desire, my good neighbor taught me how to cook the turkey. It was a great success. We have had a feast every year since then. I looked forward to the cooking and gatherings.

The theme of Thanksgiving we all know is to share, “What are we thankful

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The COVID-19 quarantines have brought a new perspective about how we inhabit our spaces. Even as we venture forth into the “new normal,” many of us will continue to spend more personal and work time at home.

Not surprisingly, during those long lockdown hours within our own four walls, many of us discovered that we were drowning in belongings – drawers, closets, rooms and garages – our homes filled to the brim A well organized space with cabinets and a bed. Next Avenue, decluttering, declutter, feng shui, organizing Pre-pandemic, we may have delayed dealing with our abundant possessions until we retired and/or became empty nesters. This is when the urge to downsize naturally becomes a priority.

For many, however, the ramifications of the pandemic have shifted from downsizing – maybe moving to a smaller place – to “rightsizing” in place.

Of course, the decluttering craze began a few years back when litter liberator, Marie Kondo, a gracious guru of good taste, popped on the scene. It seemed everyone was in a frenzy to conquer their clutter, binging on her series “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” spurred on by

Decluttering – continued on page 2 Get the latest on visitation and COVID-19 at our campus at LawrencePresbyterianManor.org/covid-19.

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Thanksgiving – continued from page 1 for through the year?” Right?

However, 2020-2021 made it hard to focus on thankfulness. The pandemic, deaths, the politics, and the disruption of our neatly organized lives made it hard to pause and think about the blessings. I lost my beloved younger sister, a friend, and a prayer partner right before thanksgiving 2020 to cancer. It was hard for me to be thankful like many people who grieved and still grieving the loss of dear ones. I was in grief, asking why?

When I came back from India, my family at Presbyterian Manor who prayed for my sister and me comforted me. Some of our residents also passed at the same time, and comforting their families gave me comfort.

I have been pondering on what I am thankful for this year. I am grateful to you for allowing me to walk with you, pray with you, pray for you, and call you my family. I lean upon the word of God that says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) Dear ones, I am learning, in all circumstances means good, bad, our struggles, and our losses.

expected, but we can celebrate each day with Thanksgiving. As long as we keep thankfulness in our hearts, remembering we are together, bound by love, hope, caring, supporting each other.

I invite you to share your stories because my story becomes our story to celebrate Thanksgiving as a big family of Presbyterian Manor of Lawrence.

Blessings and Happy Thanksgiving! u

Decluttering – continued from page 1 her bestselling book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” Though Kondo’s approach seems to have sprung sui generis from this fresh-faced, soft-spoken naïf, the truth is that both accumulating and easing excess dates to the dawn of civilization.

The Western history of word clutter traces back to the 1400s and is related to the word, clot – loosely meaning “collected in heaps, crowded together in disorder, to litter or to crowd a place by a disorderly mass of things.” Yuk. Improbably, the word signifying correcting this condition, the verb decluttering (which spellcheck doesn’t even acknowledge as a word) didn’t exist until 1950 according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Yet, in the half-century since decluttering’s appearance, experts on the how, why and when to clear our untidiness abound. There are even articles in juried scientific publications proving that if we live in a mess, we may need a shrink to unshackle ourselves from the despondency it creates.

Predating medieval cluttered hovels or even 1950s Modern Architecture streamlined homes was the Chinese practice of feng shui, an ancient art that is possibly the first system developed to create joy and promote wellbeing by tending to our surroundings.

Dating back approximately 3,500 years, feng shui developed alongside early societies moving from hunter-gathering to farming and domesticating animals. In other words, no longer nomads, these folks settled down, built permanent homes, cities and societies, and began accumulating stuff.

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Community Matters 785-841-4262 ◆ Fax: 785-841-0923 1429 Kasold Dr. Lawrence, KS 66049-3425 LawrencePresbyterianManor.org

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COMMUNITY MATTERS | November 2021

is published monthly for residents and friends of Lawrence Presbyterian Manor

by Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

To submit or suggest articles: cphelps@pmma.org.

Christopher Phelps, marketing director

OUR MISSION: To provide quality senior services guided by Christian values.

New marketing counselor thankful for Lawrence Presbyterian Manor family

By Christopher Phelps, Sales and Marketing Counselor

I want to share my heart of gratitude for Lawrence Presbyterian Manor.

I was given the opportunity to embark on a new career on June 23, 2021. I had no idea what I was getting into. I have been in sales most of my life. In my field you are usually selling a “want,” not a “need.”

I remember selling cell phones when they first hit the market. Everybody wanted them but nobody needed them.

Here at Presbyterian Manor, though, I am the sales and marketing counselor. The job is much more than sales. See, everybody needs a connection one way or the other.

When I came on board, I realized quickly the connection between staff members, the staff and the residents, and among the residents. I have enjoyed learning about everyone I’ve met over the past several months.

One thing I want to highlight is the gratitude I have for my manor family, staff and residents. My dad passed away on Sept. 27, and I just want to say thank you to everyone for warming my heart through this sad but joyful time.

I am sure everyone is sick about hearing about masks, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention something I like about them. Even though we can no longer see people’s smiles and expressions under the mask, we get something better: the eyes, the gateway to the

soul. After learning of my father’s passing, every staff member and every resident I have encountered has shared that gateway with me. All have had kind words to say, but words are not even needed when you can see true, authentic sympathy in someone’s eyes.

As you are reading this during the month of Thanksgiving, hear my words: “thank you” from the bottom of my heart. I look forward to many years getting to know each and every person at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor. u

Christopher Phelps, Sales and Marketing Counselor

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The Concept of Feng Shui The term feng shui itself translates as “wind-water,” signifying its earliest practice to site a safe place for dwellings with a main purpose to create abodes where families could flourish.

As time progressed, the movement morphed into a tradition to help locate important buildings, palaces and monuments, focusing on elements in both natural and human-made environments.

Feng shui consists of three Asian concepts: Qi (pronounced Chee), Yin and Yang and the Five Elements.

Qi refers to “a complex natural force generated by a combination of both real and abstract sources including sunlight, cosmic influences, color vibrations, the movement and quality of the air around us, the flow of water, the nature of our thoughts and emotions, the form of objects and more.” Most critically, and completely in line with Kondo’s concepts, Qi influences how a place feels, how you feel in it and if you can circulate in the space harmoniously.

The term Yin and Yang, means to create a balance, such as between light and shade or movement and stillness. Too much of one or the other causes disruption, and therefore a lack of harmony or joy. u

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COMMUNITY MATTERS | November 2021