From December’s Life Enrichment Wisdom Circle by David Gear: Making it the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
During my facilitation of a Life Enrichment Wisdom Circle at Larksfield Place this past December, I was amazed by the wisdom that was shared by a number of residents. They were sharing their insights into the topic – “Making it the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, because for many people, the “most wonderful time of the year” is anything but. In fact, according to a 2023 study by the American Psychological Association, 89 percent of Americans experience stress and feelings of being overwhelmed during the holiday season for many reasons.
When asked to share the most challenging of times during the holidays in the past, one of the residents in the Health Center who was 93 told the group that one Christmas in St. Louis, her husband’s company had gone on strike and they didn’t have any money for Christmas gifts. All three children needed some of the most basic clothing at the same time, so she went out and purchased 3 pairs of socks for each of the children and wrapped each sock in a different size box. When she was finished wrapping the socks, she had six gifts for each child to place under the tree that they had cut down that they had found in a vacant lot down the street in their neighborhood.
Another story provided by a resident that has 85 years of life experience, her mom was very sick during the months leading up to the holidays when she was a child and they had to transport her from Southeast Kansas to Joplin Missouri for life saving surgery just before Christmas. She went on to tell the Wisdom Circle participants that she had made friends with a single man in the neighborhood that she would go visit upon occasion, much to her parents dismay and disapproval and this holiday looking like they would not have Christmas, she went down and explained the situation to him. A few hours later the neighbor came to the door with a small fir tree and upon welcoming him in, the gentleman put the tree in corner and without a tree stand, he nailed the tree to the wall in a small space in the corner of the living room. She gathered her brother & sister into the room and they began to construct hand made ornaments and by the time they were finished decorating the tree they ended up with a gift to put under the tree. The gift they received was the return of their mother from the hospital, she had received the necessary treatment and was in recovery – the best gift she said that the children could have received.
David Gear, MHS
Certified Sage-ing Leader
www.sage-ingdave.org
d.gear@sage-ing.org
316-644-6379
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi
