Gratitude

Each day at the nursing home adds a new adventure.  The Nuns there have taken to us and are spending more and more time with us.  Sister Julia Maria asked me on Wednesday if I wanted to try doing everything at the nursing home, to which I agreed.  So my first assignment was to report to the home a half hour early to make beds.  She joined me and began to show me the specific steps required to ensure that each bed has what it needs for the specific resident who sleeps there.  Most beds are made the same but some have different or additional items.  Also, she had to show me things like how to get the sheet to stay on the bed.  It requires tying the corners together at the top and bottom of the mattress.  She also took the opportunity to teach me some Spanish and quizzed me as we worked on each bed.  The pressure was intense.  As one would expect of any good nun worth her salt, she did not tire of quizzing me and did not give me any breaks.  Now I know "primero es una sabana y segundo es un movible, trecero es la covia doble y fin es la colcha."  Es bueno no?

In addition to helping with the beds, many of us go out and help in the laundry while the residents eat their lunch.  In the laundry I met Sor Diguniro.  At first she wasn't sure what to have me do.  She has since figured it out...in spades.  She has had a new bigger, better project for us each day.  On the first day, she rewarded me with some breadsticks out of her own personal stash.  On the second day, we were all served a pitcher of fresh mango juice and some crackers.  Every day that we work, all of the Sisters go on and on about how hard we have worked and how we should go and rest because we deserve it.  They're acknowledgment is so genuine and they are so appreciative of us.     Their appreciaion is striking to me, given that they work like that all day, every day with no days off.  What a generous position to take, to view us as working hard, even when we are doing only a fraction of what they do, and will continue to do, long after we have gone home.  To me, that's gratitude!