THESENIORPOINT thewoodlandsumc.org // September 2015
We can make many choices in life but one we cannot make is whether or not to grow older. We begin growing older the minute we are born. And when we enter the time of life we call our “senior years”, we do have a choice as to how we will live each day. We can live each day with joy, excitement, and expectation as to what the future may bring. Or we can live each day with resentment, resignation, and despair.
Aletha Harris, Connie Norton, Marion Fischer, and Joyce Nesmith
OK QUILTERS
The Woodlands UMC OK Quilters held their annual summer luncheon in Jones Library on July 15. The ladies presented thirty-five quilts, blankets and pillows to special guests, Marion Fischer and Aletha Harris from the Montgomery County Women’s Center. The group recently received a donation from the Circuit Rider Band in honor of Walter Vetterick. They chose to use the donation to buy supplies for this gift to the women’s shelter. In addition to monthly meetings, three workshops were added in order to complete the project. The group began around 2002 when Friendship Class leader, Geneva Carroll, organized a group activity known as Beginner Quilting, when Geneva turned the leadership of the quilters over to Joyce Nesmith and Lela Smith in 2003 and the group changed its name to the Friendship Lap Quilt Ministry. After member, Oreda Kaylor’s, death in 2006 the name was changed to the OK Quilters and the motto became, “We’re not perfect but we’re OK.” Their initial mission was to give quilts to senior citizens who were homebound, seriously ill or in long term care facilities. continued on page 4 However, the scope has increased significantly. Quilts have
With this in mind, I commend to you a book I have enjoyed this summer. It is entitled The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully by Joan Chittister. In her introduction she says, “It is time for us to let go of both our fantasies of eternal youth and our fears of growing older, and to find the beauty of what it means to age well. It is time to understand that the last phase of life is not non-life; it is a new stage of life. These older years----reasonably active, mentally alert, experienced and curious, socially important and spiritually significant----are meant to be good years.” It is a blessing to be acquainted with those who know this to be true and who celebrate this stage of life in so many ways. They know that life is not about the length of years we manage to eke out of it. It is about living into the values offered each day, about growing older with grace. This little book helps us to know how to do that. May God bless you as you continue to grow older with grace and to accept life as a gift each day. Your friend, Don
FLU SHOTS
Rev. Don Meador, Dr. Mark Lewis, Aletha Harris, Marion Fischer, Joyce Nesmith, Connie Norton, and Rev. Joy Johnston
Flu shots will be available from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 2, in the Atrium and are available to people of any age without prior sign-up. Flu and pneumonia shots are covered by Medicare, be sure to bring your card. Tetanus shots will also be available. For more information, contact Helen Burgdorf at 281.397.3726.