{"id":110598,"date":"2021-07-15T12:53:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T19:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/?p=110598"},"modified":"2021-07-16T09:42:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T16:42:37","slug":"answering-the-call-as-it-comes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/110598-answering-the-call-as-it-comes","title":{"rendered":"Answering the Call as it Comes"},"content":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \n

2021 Volunteer of the Year, Arlene Stepputat.<\/em><\/p>\n

Arlene Stepputat received the Volunteer of the Year award at the Minister\u2019s Meeting during the Conference of the Heart of Soul Transcendence, June 27, 2021.\u00a0 At our request, Arlene graciously wrote about her life\u2019s work and her volunteer service to the MSIA community through Heartfelt and HeartReach.<\/em><\/p>\n

John-Roger once quoted Woody Allen, \u201cIt\u2019s not that I am afraid of death, I just don\u2019t want to be there when it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of us laugh at this in recognition, but then avoid the topic of death altogether.\u00a0 We intend to go home to the Heart of God, but perhaps the 10% level of leaving the planet somehow doesn\u2019t seem \u201cspiritual\u201d so we avoid it.<\/p>\n

I have had many personal experiences of deep loss beginning with the passing of my father when I was 11.\u00a0 Since then, most of my life\u2019s work has involved befriending death and integrating it back into the life cycle. J- R\u2019s teachings through MSIA, Insight and USM have given me the practical tools and experiences I needed to heal my own well of grief.<\/p>\n

My professional life gave me the opportunity to work with the AIDS crisis in New York City, work as an educator for the Alzheimer\u2019s Association and manage hundreds of volunteers at my local hospice organization.\u00a0 And most recently, I became a trained \u201cend of life\u201d Doula.<\/p>\n

What I\u2018ve witnessed repeatedly is that avoidance of the topic of death had individuals and families scrambling to understand how to navigate the many options of the medical profession, what hospice is, resources to support those who were ill and those who loved them, and how to grieve in the process.\u00a0 It became my passion to educate! \u00a0I started my website www.dyingingrace.com<\/a> with interviews and information as a free resource to help people explore, navigate, and learn.<\/p>\n

Carol Jones and the PTS \u201cJoyful Transitions\u201d class opened the topic to our MSIA community.\u00a0 Carol\u2019s beautiful book, Through Kenny\u2019s Eyes, demonstrated how death can be a sacred process amidst the pain of losing a beloved.\u00a0 This class brought many of J-R\u2019s teaching around death and dying to the forefront.<\/p>\n

Serving the Traveler and J-R\u2019s organizations has been my path from my first Insight I onward.\u00a0 The joy of giving back when I have been so blessed to receive so much from Spirit is a gift beyond measure. As I fielded calls from various people in the Movement, I realized that I could provide a service by sharing much of the practical information I had acquired over so many years.<\/p>\n

Circle of Light through HeartReach has also been a wonderful way that we as a body, minister and love one another on our way home.<\/p>\n

Through the Heartfelt Foundation (pre-Covid), Carol, Cheryl Matthieu, Skyler and I provided an evening at Prana about Advanced Health Care Directives using one of the models, The Five Wishes.\u00a0 And subsequently we have been able to offer online informational sessions.<\/p>\n

Covid stopped us all, for a while.\u00a0 Death suddenly became a focus worldwide and perhaps reminded us that we may not know what Spirit\u2019s plan is for any of us.\u00a0 I began the MSIA Death Caf\u00e9, again thanks to Skyler\u2019s willingness to host via Zoom, and we began to have conversations about death (see deathcafe.org to see this is a worldwide movement).\u00a0 More people started calling me with questions and concerns.\u00a0 My joy is that I can listen and, through Spirit, provide loving support and guidance.<\/p>\n

Spirit taps me on the shoulder with the next directive.\u00a0 Start a group for grieving partners.\u00a0 Do a presentation about the sacred and practical roots of hospice. \u00a0Answer the call as it comes. I just heed when the calling comes.<\/p>\n

I am humbled and awed.\u00a0 I see how my entire life I have been prepared so that in my own later years I can continue to befriend death and help others do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arlene Stepputat received the Volunteer of the Year award at the Minister\u2019s Meeting during the Conference of the Heart of Soul Transcendence, June 27, 2021.\u00a0 At our request, Arlene graciously wrote about her life\u2019s work and her volunteer service to the MSIA community through Heartfelt and HeartReach. John-Roger once quoted Woody Allen, \u201cIt\u2019s not that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,5397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-ministry-in-action"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}