Forever Homes for Abandoned Armenians

Dear friends,

I’m getting ready for another trip to Armenia in late March. And looking forward to meeting our new group of residents and seeing those I have long loved. I’m also looking forward to sharing your gifts and spirit and stories… I have a suitcase full of beautiful clothes for the residents, nursing journals for the psychiatric hospital, a hand-knit blanket, sheets and towels. I think it is part of my work to connect our residents back to you, as you are connected to them, to work on completing the circle.

Jean Vanier started group homes around the world for people with developmental disabilities, and has a book entitled “Becoming Human” that articulates the heart of Warm Hearth. What I most admire about him is his posture. He doesn’t see himself as the healer or the strong one. He says: “the one who is healed and the one who is healing constantly change place.” Again, we are encircled and part of a circle when we give and receive, when we work and rest. And I have to say that nothing is more true in this work, which is really just life, which brings us down to earth and toward heaven all in one breath, if you will.

What I mean by this work we are engaged in really being just *life* is expressed again by Vanier:

The belief in the inner beauty of each and every human being is at the heart of {Warm Hearth}, at the heart of all true education and at the heart of being human. As soon as we start selecting people and judging people instead of welcoming them as they are – with their sometimes human beauty, as well as their more frequent visible weaknesses – we are reducing life, not fostering it. When we reveal to people our belief in them, their hidden beauty rises to the surface where it may be more clearly seen by all.

I know I’m preaching to the choir here. I know that those of you who have followed and nurtured and grown this work/life have already experienced this reality. I know that you sense the threads that tie you to our residents and that you see their beauty and their strength and courage. I guess what I really wanted to share is that they also sense the threads that tie them to you…they know they are loved. They take so much joy in the fact that you know their names. Somehow this small fact makes a large difference.

So, thank you. And bless you. May we constantly change places between healer and healed. May we remain in the circle.

Sincerely & With Gratitude, Natalie