A Time to Care

"If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain,
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain
Or help a fainting robin unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain."
                Emily Dickinson

This spring my granddaughter and I spent some time working with a migrant worker program on the Mexican border. Every morning as we made our way to the school I was awed at the caring going on there; at the dedicated teachers and Vista workers, at the energy with which the administrators worked to create more opportunities, at the families who often walked miles to get their children to the programs, and, of course, at the children themselves who seemed so eager to embrace all we offered.

I sense that same kind of caring in some dedicated parents and young people at my own church who cook and serve at two soup kitchens. I hear care expressed at a hospice volunteer meeting, at an abuse support group and a hundred other places as people reach out to each other. And despite hopeless moments such as when an individual wonders where to find the time to care for aging parents and demanding children, or when we hear about a newly homeless family, human being do find ways to care.Here area few books of hope and inspiration in the caring places of your life.

MAY I WALK YOU HOME? by Joyce Hutchison with prayers by Joyce Rupp. Ave Maria Press, 1999. 158 pages, paper $9.95.

Hutchison writes from first hand experience as an oncology nurse and director of a hospice facility. She shares stories of what it is like to care for the seriously ill and dying, how to listen well, and the power of simple presence. Joyce Rupp follows each example with a moving prayer-poem and a simple meditation.

THE SINGER AND THE SONG: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE SPIRIT by Miriam Therese Winter. Orbis Books, 1999. 180 pages, paper $14.95.

Books like this make me feel very inadequate as a reviewer. What I really want to do is read every page to you aloud, accompanied by all the music that sings through it, or just take you by the hand and sit you at the feet of this awesome woman and her guitar. There are gems everywhere in this book, thoughts to savor and ponder, a great Amen cascading from every page.

I hope most of our readers have heard "M.T." sing her lessons and stories, at least on her CD's. This is the story of a young woman who hears God singing in everything and everywhere and wants to share that song, who began by "singing her discontent into meaning" and tells us how "the grace notes from the Divine Musician have shaped the contours of my life."

YOUR SORROW IS MY SORROW: HOPE AND STRENGTH IN TIMES OF SUFFERING by Joyce Rupp. Crossroads 1999. 179 pages, paper $14.95.

When we are suffering in any way, it always helps to have someone with us who understands. Joyce Rupp uses the sorrows of Mary, the Mother of God, as example and includes comparisons, prayers, meditations and questions for reflection to "get us through our own rough-edged moments."

GUESTS OF GOD: STEWARDS OF DIVINE CREATION by Monika K. Hellwig. Paulist Press, 1999. 127 pages, paper $9.95.

What a grand title for a book about living responsibly in a global community. Monika Hellwig's writing is always sharp-honed, clear and precise, particularly when she calls us to faithful living. This book is especially practical too, with personal reflections and questions for discussions in areas such as ecological justice, poverty and peace. Fine line drawings enhance the awareness to which she is calling us.

RAISING UP QUEENS: LOVING OUR DAUGHTERS LOUD AND STRONG by Esther Davis-Thompson. Innisfree Press, 2000. 160 pages, paper $12.00.

Everywhere we hear the warning that our children are in crisis. Can anything be done about it? Davis-Thompson writes an impassioned plea for mothers to acknowledge their own God-awareness and love-awareness as an example of powerful womanhood for their daughters. "WE are a generation of women who must pay attention so that the next generation of mothers can know who they are," she writes. This book is a lyrical and powerful song of Courage, Belief and Healing.

THE RED TENT by Anita Diamante. Picador USA (St. Martins Press) 1997. 321 pages, paper $14.00.

The delightful practice of Midrash --- expanding on a biblical passage --- is a way of using fresh eyes to look at familiar stories. This Midrash is a new view of the Book of Genesis, told in the voice of Dinah, a woman only hinted at in our traditional tales. I found it a charming, sometimes humorous but solidly based expansion of all my studies. Is it about caring for one another? You bet! Does it tell us anything about caring today? Of course. Stories of caring under overwhelming circumstances should give us courage and hope to go on with own caring.

Ruth Butler is a retired teacher, children's literature specialist and Episcopalian from Topsfield MA.