Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas and Happy 2016 New Year

I wait this long so I can feel like it’s almost spring. But it doesn’t matter if I don’t know what the temperature is because I live in a warm house in cold country where what I need is within reach, and everything's familiar. I'm to the point that familiarity outranks exciting. And really, there are small moments of great beauty at the birdfeeders just outside my window and in the weather I can still watch. I don't have to be out in it to know how it feels.

And along that line, my latest addition in the quest for safety and mobility indoors is a piece of equipment called a multi-lift, bolted to the wall near my bed so the battery-operated, remote-controlled flexible extension arm can reach out to pick me up in the sling and place me in my power chair or back to bed as I choose. This takes the place of having to wait for my evening helper on those days when my knees are not stable enough to risk getting up in braces. There are those days. 

And when spring does come there will be a special installation in the car so the multi-lift can move me from chair to car seat without the risks of a pivot transfer on concrete. If I still had the motorhome (the sale of which paid for the multi-lift) this great gadget would even have gotten me through that tall door!

I’m just telling you the new stuff here. The old stuff is that I’m the same as I ever was, except older and maybe wise enough to be grateful for what is left to me. I am still writing, after all, and the one volume autobiography has now turned into six! I still take pictures, even from EWTN, and have turned my walls into galleries.

And I go to Church every day, also by way of technology, and I get front row seats on every trip Pope Francis makes, every celebration at St. Peter’s Basilica and for quite a few consecrations of new Priests and Bishops in America. In other words, I get around more and see better things than when I could walk. Plus, there are really good people who come each week from my home town Church with Communion.

And because I am a Carmelite, even if housebound, I pray for our country, our world, our families and ancestors, for nursing homes and everybody who suffers. That includes you if you need it or want it. See you next year, wherever we are.

--Norma