You're the Cheese in My Sandwich

Our Enhanced Assisted Living Chef, Steve, has forged great relationships with our residents in the five months since he was hired. This holiday season, the staff were invited to sign holiday cards for the residents. In true form, Steve decided to write notes in the cards instead of a signature. He wrote each individual resident a short, food-related note that illustrated the humor and relationship he has co-created with them.

For the resident who doesn't like cheese, it read: "Dear X, Thanks for being the cheese in my sandwich."

We love Chef Steven for both his fabulous dishes, and the laughter he brings into our homes!

Elisha Thorne, Housing Program Coordinator

Recovery Coach Training

Recently, I attended a training to be a Recovery Coach for the SHIFT Peer Recovery Program.  I have had an awesome experience going through this training group. I went in the door with several years of experience in recovery, thinking what can I possible learn? There were about 15 men and women from different backgrounds and ages with varied ideas and opinions.

Facilitators Joe Bills and Josh Wallace allowed us to meet each other through open questions and through different exercises.  WOW! I had no idea that I knew so little about healthy boundaries, listening without judgment, and participating in group activities. There was so much open-mindedness not only in the participants but also with the facilitators as well!  That was nice for me because there was no judgment … right or wrong.

The whole week we were all taken care of! We didn’t have to worry about “Anything"!  Joe and Josh made sure we were comfortable with our feelings throughout the week of training.
I would totally recommend this to anyone who knows nothing about the Shift Program and to those who think they know about being an Open, Caring, Listening human being...

I am so grateful for not only what I learned in the training but also the knowing that it works.

Timothy Dean
SHIFT Peer Recovery Coach

Worth: A Measure of Value

  I visit inmates at MCC-WSR, Monroe Correctional Complex-Washington State Reformatory, a prison.  A place where there is no trust; guards,fellow inmates, friends, even family, are not immune from betraying.    So, here I come, for a one-on-one visit.

  There is an African proverb, "An enemy is a person whose story you haven't heard."  I hear. Even better, I attempt to listen.  It's not the "I" who is important here, it's the presence of Shanti.  So, I listen, and I believe.  This belief has conditionality.  It is held between us on a path we walk together. Oh, I've heard stories change, deny, even contradict earlier versions, but the storyteller and I are  still on a path together, and I continue to believe . My giving  the Shanti model of unconditionality challenges the inmate whose life is all about conditions and contradictions, his perceptions of what is possible have too often shrunk as he teeters on a tightrope  when he might be walking at least the width of a footpath.

  Then I say, so long, with a firm handshake.  If I clasp his hand with both of mine, or rest my hand on his shoulder, let alone hug him, I'm subject to censure and to putting the Shanti program into  jeopardy: "Limit  your  physical contact with felons, please."    It's a revolving door for me.  "I'm outta here"  at the end of the day, whether or not my footstep is  lighter or my heart heavier; I breathe unfettered air.    Of course, I'm coming back!  What part of fifty-four miles round trip and six to eight hours-twice a month-isn't worth it?

  Worth.  A measure of value for me..  I  cannot fathom a man's imprisoned ways.  But he returns, and greets me with a smile (although he may wait with it until unobserved in our room).  A smile: with its own redemptive  power.  And to this I might add  the last line from  Eliot's "The Wasteland": " Shantih   Shantih  Shantih ".




Frederick Bindel, Shanti Volunteer

Live Every Day Like It's Your Last - Just Don't Get Caught!

I was involved in Shanti years ago and did about 4 or 5 years doing volunteer work... originally Shanti was under NWAF and so I did volunteer with NWAF and Shanti at the same time, I loved doing the NWAF because I was able to connect to the LGBT community in Seattle and Shanti because I was able to connect to my heart...

Then I dropped out for several years after my client passed away. It was a long time ago, there was a lot there that was different at that time than most volunteers were experiencing with their clients...   and also it was tied to taking care of my father who had terminal cancer. But both deaths and the ability to witness them had a common thread and were amazing experiences...

I would say what Shanti prepared me for was to not be afraid to be around death or the process leading up to it. There is still such a taboo and people will often talk around it. There are so many fears, apprehensions, sadness, grief... everything... and that has nowhere to go when the person dying or their loved ones trying to deal with it just stifle it.

I think that is why that I sometimes see a family "falling apart" after someone dies because all the unspoken, all the suppressed emotions come out and sometimes in ways that are damaging.

Of course, if I was faced with my own death I do not know how I would handle that, it's a unique thing for each person... you know those cliché sayings like "the minute we're born we start to die" or something along those lines... have never meant anything to me because it's too disconnected from daily living...

my favorite is "you should live everyday like it's your last" to which I reply "yes but eventually I would have to pay off the charge cards" because I know each day is not necessarily my last and I have to plan for some things, at least, in the future... though my challenge is to stay in the moment...

OK.. there's my philosophy.  "live every day like it's your last. but just don't get caught!"

Nathan
Shanti Volunteer