by Danielle Medearis, University of Tulsa
The Irish poet W.B. Yeats once wrote:
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
As my time working here at the Jeanne Jugan Residence through the Spring Into Service program comes to a close, I’ve reflected on my time here and this quote has often come to mind. Although some of their more conventional senses may be dulled and muffled a tad, I believe the Residents here possess this sharpened ability to see magic things.
I’ve seen it in small instances; in a Resident marveling at the beauty of the flowers in the garden outside which I had overlooked for so long, in the thoughtful far-off gaze of a woman as she waits so patiently in perfect contentment for her breakfast to be brought to her, or the quiet smiles of those I’ve helped to accompany on a group outing to the beach as they look out at the waves. There are flashing moments when it seems to me the Residents here are viewing a world completely separate from the world I am accustomed to taking in, and this world seems to indeed be much more magical than the one my foggy eyesight beholds.
Now, this is not to say everyone living here floats around all day in a cloud of ancient wisdom feeling nothing but harmony and peace and occasionally deigning to pass along snippets of sage advice to the lowly young ones around them; just like all normal people, Residents have good days and bad days.
But I’ve seen on their good days instances of an offhand comment or contemplative glance that convey this incredible awareness of life that they possess. After a full life, their sense of the world has grown sharper, and they see the world plainly for the magical place it is.
I think being young can muddle vision very easily and quite often. I have one thousand distractions bouncing around my mind that aren’t inherently negative, but they create a sort of static that easily blurs the world around me. My picture of what is real, what I should be doing, and most importantly, who I should be living for, often lacks clarity. The chance to work with the Residents and serve them and simply be around them has provided me with the opportunity to observe the clarity they possess. Their vision is clear, their priorities are not being constantly and frantically rearranged, and they know themselves.
I wish I could say this clarity of understanding the world and one’s place in it rubbed off totally onto
me while I’ve been here this summer, but alas, it has not. I have a hunch it takes a few years to acquire. But, it has made me aware of my own need to start attempting to see the world clearly, to start improving on my life awareness.
Because once I’ve aged and am a resident in a home I hope to be like Jeanne Jugan, I’m not going to tell the story of that one time I got a 98% on my genetics midterm, or how I had really good fashion sense during my college years, or even my running personal records and times. I’m going to want to tell stories like the ones I’ve heard here, about the family I raised, the people I served, and the times I recognized God’s love for me in the hands of others.
As my time with the Little Sisters of the Poor and the wonderful Residents and workers here at Jeanne Jugan comes to a close, I look forward to carrying everything I have learned and experienced out into the bigger world, where I can continue to sharpen my own senses to observe the magic of the Lord’s beautiful earth in which I live.
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