Forever Homes for Abandoned Armenians

“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve or save the world and a desire to enjoy or savor the world. This makes it hard to plan a day.” (E. B. White)

Bridget Anderson, our Associate Director, recently moved to Nigeria & continues to be involved in Warm Hearth’s growth & sustenance. Today she sent me this quote by E.B. White. It speaks to the efforts, motivation and tension of Warm Hearth & of the wider world.

The tension is felt in our home in Armenia as the New Year approaches. New Year is a significant and special holiday in Armenia and is celebrated for an entire week, beginning with the old date for New Year (January 6th). We want our residents to savor this celebration and have done what we can to make sure this will happen!

But at the same time, some of our efforts must continue to extend to three of our residents who have been in and out of the hospital this year…two of whom will remain hospitalized during the New Year. We cannot abandon either effort. But it is hard to hold them both: to “savor and improve.” To “enjoy and save.”

We care that Warm Hearth be a true and revolutionary way of life for our residents. We also care that Warm Hearth be a place that creates a space where the world can be enjoyed and savored by our residents, of course, but also by the extended family of Warm Hearth.

I hope that being a part of Warm Hearth, in whatever capacity you are, provides a balance of improving the world and drinking deeply of the beauty that has been created. I hope it means this for our residents and staff as well.

May this effort, upheld by many of you, be an ever so slight moment of harmony where these two ways of abiding in the world can be joined together.

That is my hope for each of you today as we enter the holiday & Christmas season.

With Gratitude, Natalie Bryant Rizzieri