Move Whatever You Need To Move To Be Where God Needs You To Be, Doing Whatever You Need to Do!

For the past couple of years I’ve attended a Bible Study led by the Rev. Dr. Gayle Fisher Stewart and it is an amazing 90 minutes each week where we learn so much more than what is in the Bible! Last week Gayle gave us the assignment to write a Proverb – and most of us were thinking … “we can’t do that”… but she convinced us that we could. Because of the previous few weeks I’d had, I wrote – “Move whatever you need to move to be where God needs you to be, doing whatever you need to do”. I’ve learned that lesson over and over for the past 6 weeks.

The most significant thing I need to move right now is an infection in my left eye that first arrived in 2017 after I had cataract surgery and stayed in my life for more than a year. Then after receiving a clear bill of eye health in October 2023 from my yearly checkup with my retina specialist, the infection returned seemingly out of nowhere in December 2023. It’s to the point now that if the infection doesn’t respond to my current eye drop and oral pill treatments I’m likely facing cornea transplant surgery. The original eye drop dosage didn’t work so they upped the frequency AND the pills to take orally to fight the viral infection from the inside too.

There was only one problem with that plan…. I have a swallowing deficit diagnosed in the 1990s that has prevented me from swallowing pills whole and I was told this pill couldn’t be crushed. So I really needed to MOVE that inability to swallow pills so I can give myself the best opportunity to resolve the infection. It’s been an absolute struggle but I ordered a couple of items from Amazon to help with swallowing pills and I’ve been able to get the pills down three times a day with lots of prayer! I believe God needs my eyes to be healthy so I can continue my journey.

On Friday February 2, I was to scheduled to facilitate a two-day course to train new facilitators in the LEGO®️ Serious Play®️ methodology in Baltimore. A mile from the church where the course was going to be held, another driver cut me off and ran me into a curb resulting in a flat tire. My first thought was “ok I’m not hurt so let’s just get to the class”. I coasted in my car to the front of the church and got all of my course materials and LEGO bricks loaded into my wagon and waited for the tow truck to come. I started that class on time in spite of the incident because that church was where God needed me to be and the class resulted in three amazing women being certified to lead their own LEGO Serious Play sessions with others in their communities!

Last Sunday February 4th, I moved several meetings to be able to have lunch with a friend who was in town to put flowers on her daughter’s grave. I’m so glad I made that change because after our lunch my friend realized she wasn’t up to going to the cemetery and that she had gotten whatever she needed that day from me and sent me a text saying she was heading back to her home instead of going to the cemetery. I believe that God absolutely had me change my schedule in order to be in that restaurant with her.

I left the restaurant and headed right to a glorious Absalom Jones service that was so JOYFUL I thought the church was going to burst! We were told later that the Episcopal Bishop of Washington said it was one of the best services she’d ever presided over. I need JOY anytime I step into a church building and so I know God put me in that church last week. That service gave me incredible energy to continue to go out and do the work that God has called me to do … bringing Joy to those with dementia and all who care for them!

This past Thursday I went for a walk on a trail I’d never walked along National Harbor, MD. As I walked down a hill near the entrance to the MGM Casino I witnessed an accident caused by a woman turning left into the casino to attend a conference. She hit the car of a man who was on her left whom she didn’t see, causing significant damage to her car. The man she hit wasn’t hurt but he got out of his car and angrily jumped up and down about the damage to his car. My security training kicked in and I sprinted across the three lanes of traffic to ensure that she was OK and to ensure that the other driver wasn’t going to try to hurt her. She never got out of her car, and I stayed with her the 20 minutes it took for the police to arrive and took photos of her car that she could send to her insurance company. I guess I was supposed to walk that trail that day even though I’d never done it. She sent me the most amazing text that night thanking me for all I had done for her, but who wouldn’t have done that?

This past Friday I was back in Baltimore privileged to facilitate a LEGO Serious Play session celebrating early Valentine’s Day for caregivers, sponsored by the Baltimore County Department of Aging and the Greater Maryland Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and it was amazing!! I usually always wear purple whenever I speak or facilitate but that day I wore a sweater with hearts that went with our theme of Building Love into Dementia Caregiving!! The LOVE that was in that room that day was literally breathtaking! A radio show host who interviewed me prior to the session was so curious about LEGO Serious Play and how powerful I said it was that he came to participate too!! Two of the caregiver participants brought their loved ones they were caring for to the session with them and they built together, literally warming the hearts of everyone in attendance. One example was a woman and her brother. They built a LEGO model representing them walking together in the gym they had just joined showing everyone they will be working out TOGETHER in the gym throughout his dementia journey. Several participants were in tears by that amazing story and strategy!!

I’m not sure I’ve always listened to God and what I was supposed to be doing, but for whatever reason, now I’m listening all the time. I’m always wondering what will happen next, especially with my left eye but my plan is to just keep listening and being and doing – and I know that no matter what happens with the eye I’m ready. 2024 has had quite the start for me – and I am really looking forward to the next chapter of my journey. I’ll continue to be wherever I need to be doing whatever I need to do!