Lawrence Community Matters September 2021

Lawrence Presbyterian Manor

Thank you, God, for everything

By Dinah Dutta, Chaplain SEPTEMBER 2021

Local artist among Art is Ageless® masterpiece level winners One winning artist in Lawrence Presbyterian Manor’s annual Art is Ageless® juried competition will be featured in the 2022 Art is Ageless calendar produced by PMMA (Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America).

“Morning Fishing,” a “Morning Fishing,” a painting by Steve Dittmann painting by Steve Dittmann, will appear in the calendar when it is released this fall.

Works by local winners are automatically entered into a masterpiece level competition with winning art from 14 other PMMA communities. More than 160 entries were received for this year’s masterpiece competition. The winners are featured in the Art is Ageless calendar with pull-out postcards and greeting cards.

“We’re so proud of Steve and all the effort and dedication he put into his work,” said Marketing Counselor Christopher Phelps. “It’s nice to see this recognition for his talent. We’re always excited when our residents have the chance to express themselves and excel in their craft.”

A copyrighted program of PMMA, Art is Ageless is open exclusively to people age 65 and older. For the competition, works must have been completed in the past five years.

PMMA’s Art is Ageless program encourages Lawrence Presbyterian Manor residents and other area seniors to express their creativity through its annual competition, as well as art classes, educational opportunities and current events discussions throughout the year.

Started in 1980, Art is Ageless is an extension of PMMA’s wellness programs, which focus on mental, physical, social and spiritual health. u

I want to share a story with you, although I do not know its author. The reason I am sharing this story is that I am learning to give thanks to God for our current situation.

The story below reminded me of the song my mother taught when we were young: “Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings, see what God has done, count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

There was a bird that lived in the desert — very sick, no feathers, nothing to eat and drink, no shelter to live. He cursed his life, day and night. One day, an angel of God was crossing from that desert. The bird stopped the angel and inquired, “Where are you going?” The angel replied, “I am going to meet God.” The bird said, ‘Please ask God when my suffering will come to an end.” The Angel responded, “Sure, I will,” and bid goodbye to the bird. The angel reached God’s place and shared the message of the bird with Him. The angel told Him of the pathetic condition of the bird and inquired as to when its suffering would end. God replied, “For the next seven lifetimes, the bird has to suffer like this, no happiness till then.”

The angel said, “When the bird hears this, he will be disheartened. Could you suggest any solution for this?” God replied, “Tell him to recite this mantra, ‘Thank you, God, for everything.’”

The angel met the bird again and delivered God’s message.

Thank you – continued on page 4

Get the latest on visitation and COVID-19 at our campus at LawrencePresbyterianManor.org/covid-19.

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Why fun Is key to happiness as we age

By Travis Tae Oh One of the most intriguing questions in life is to ask ourselves what makes us happy. Sure, it’s a millennia-old question, but it keeps popping up, generation after generation, with many scholars and philosophers spending their lifetime studying it.

In contrast, very few people have seriously inquired (or researched) about what it means to have fun and why fun is important to our wellbeing, even during adulthood and in the second half of life.

To better understand fun and explore its implications, I have devoted the last five years to interviewing dozens of individuals from all walks of life, collecting over a thousand written narratives, amassing hundreds of images for what’s known as photo ethnography and conducting multiple experiments and analyses to build a theory of fun.

What My Research on Fun Reveals The underlying psychology of fun is an experience of liberating engagement — a temporary release from internalized restrictions, such as social obligations or self-imposed disciplines, by actively engaging in an activity for pure enjoyment.

Let me illustrate this concept through a particularly memorable interview I had with Greg (not his real name, for privacy reasons), a retired teacher in his early 70s.

Greg emigrated from Greece to the

U.S. via a transatlantic cruise ship when he was seven and has lived in New York City since then. He worked as a language teacher for 35 years before retiring. His eyes beaming with pride as he explains his teaching experiences, there’s no doubt that his career accomplishments brought him meaning and happiness in life.

Yet, as we start talking about his fun experiences, Greg’s tone changes into one of youthful exuberance. I can feel a sense of pure joy and happiness as he steps toward the center of the room, telling me that he will show me the spirit of “Zorba the Greek.”

Completely spontaneous, Greg starts singing a Greek folksong, in a conversational, medium-pitched vibrato. He takes diamond steps at each beat and jumps up in sort of a scissors kick and claps his hands in between his kicks.

It’s a brief moment, but magical.

For This Retiree, Dancing Is the Epitome of Fun Returning to his seat, Greg recounts his dancing adventures decades ago when he would go to clubs in Manhattan.

“What makes it fun? Well, it’s a total abandon,” he says. “You get inspired by the music and jump up and down.

Like, you let go. Your worries, you let go of everything.”

While dancing might not be fun for

all of us, Greg makes a vital point about the nature of fun. That is, the essence of fun is an experience of liberation. Of letting go and being carefree.

It’s not the type of activity that matters, but whether that experience engages you with a sense of liberation.

Why is this characteristic of fun important to happiness, especially in adulthood and later in life?

Life’s drudgeries can, at times, overwhelm the best of us — and that seems to happen more frequently in midlife.

Fun: The Antidote to Midlife Malaise Unfortunately most of us don’t take having fun as “seriously” as we should, even though, as my research suggests, fun is a major contributor to overall happiness.

Further analysis confirmed that fun is an independent driver of happiness, even after controlling for other known contributors such as meaningfulness or sensory pleasure.

I believe we are placing too much

Fun – continued on page 4

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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.

Christie Patrick, executive director Christopher Phelps, marketing director

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

COMMUNITY MATTERS | September 2021

Producing happiness Henry Roberts and his wife make a great team when it comes to managing their backyard garden.

“I plant. I enjoy hoeing and pulling weeds, getting down on my knees trying to keep the rows free of weeds,” Henry said. “My wife, Kerstin, she helps me pick the produce when it’s ready. She’ll help me pick green beans and okra. And she certainly helps prepare the meals for us.”

Gardening has been a part of Henry’s life since he was a small child. For the past nine years that he and Kerstin have lived in Lawrence Presbyterian Manor, they’ve cultivated a small patch of soil as a produce garden.

“When I grew up, my parents had a

wonderful victory garden,” Henry recalled. “I was just a little boy. My dad didn’t necessarily keep that up, but I guess I get my gardening prowess from my grandma. She had a big garden in Alabama. I moved to Ottawa (Kan.) when I was called to be pastor of the Presbyterian Church in 1972 — that’s when I had a big garden myself.”

His go-to crops are tomatoes and green beans. He also enjoys planting spring onions as well as okra and squash.

“The tomatoes are just starting to come on,” Henry said. “I just picked two and had a couple on the other day. If I can keep the squirrels or opossums from coming to eat them up, I’ll have a good crop of tomatoes.”

But for Henry, the art and act of gardening is more than the sum of the produce he gathers at the end of the season.

Henry always grows green beans.

Tomatoes are one of Henry’s staple crops.

“It’s just a marvelous thing to be able to have a seed: a small infinitesimal seed that you can plant in the ground, and nurture to see it grow, and harvest a crop,” Henry said. “To me, it’s kind of a God thing. I think that’s how I kind of see my life. We grow. We start out small and Henry shows off his latest picking.

develop ourselves over the years.

Then we’re able to harvest and be productive and efficient and reap some of the benefits.”

There’s also a certain wonder in the ability to share the bounty with others.

“I share with the neighbors. I think they appreciate that,” Henry said.

“We had an Airstream trailer and traveled a lot the past 20 years. I’d get a garden going, then I’d invite all the neighbors to come over and pick the produce when we’d go off somewhere.”

When it comes to Henry and Kerstin, they have perfected recipes over the years to capture the most flavor from their work.

“We slice up the tomatoes and eat them. My wife has a nice recipe where she marinates them in French dressing, and maybe some olive oil.

Let them sit for an hour or two, and they’re awfully good,” he said. “We also enjoy them on BLTs and sandwiches. There’s nothing like a garden tomato.”

Henry also encourages anyone who can to dig their hands in the dirt and find their own joy in gardening: “If people are healthy and had gardens before they came to PMMA, I would encourage them to have one.

You don’t have to have a big one. I have a wonderful deck, and on it I have a pot for patio tomatoes. People can get several above-ground pots to grow things like thyme and sage. My hope is that as a result of sharing, it might lead someone to start a garden in their own townhome.”u

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Thank you – continued from page 1

FUN – continued from page 2

After seven days, the angel passed the same path again and saw the bird was happy. Feathers had grown on his body, a small plant grew in the desert area, a small pond of water was also there, and the bird was singing and dancing cheerfully. The angel was astonished as to how this happened.

After all, God said for seven lifetimes, there would be no happiness for the bird. He went to visit God again.

emphasis on finding meaning and fulfillment in life as the holy grail of happiness, with little regard for fun.

For those of us who have been so laser-focused on our careers, parenting or other pursuits, spending significant money and time to really have fun may seem like a distant activity (when was the last time you did that?) or may incite feelings of guilt.

My Advice to You: Have Fun! But the art of having fun comes from the realization that fun is a temporary release from internalized restrictions while engaged in a pleasurable activity.

This sense of feeling free and liberated, even if transient, can greatly add to your happiness and compensate for the challenges that may lie ahead as you return to your meaningful pursuits in life.

According to my research, the best way to achieve this is to set aside a specific time and location to give yourself permission to let loose and engage yourself in something novel and spontaneous with others who also want to join in on your fun experience.

I hope you will. Have fun! u

The angel questioned God, and He replied: “Yes, it was written there will be no happiness for the bird for seven lifetimes, but because the bird was reciting the mantra ‘thank you, God, for everything,’ the situation has changed.

“When the bird fell on the hot sand, it said ‘thank you, God, for everything.’ When it could not fly, it said ‘thank you, God, for everything.’ Whatever the situation, the bird kept on repeating ‘thank you, God, for everything,’ and therefore seven lifetimes of karma were dissolved in seven days.”

After reading this story, I decided to adopt this mantra once again in my life. Whatever the situation we are facing, due to COVID or otherwise, I want to invite you to join me in reciting this mantra: “THANK YOU, GOD, FOR EVERYTHING” and believe that we will return to normal again.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1Thes 5: 18). u

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COMMUNITY MATTERS | September 2021