Many times I end up not being prepared. A project was on the calendar that I was assigned to at the last minute. We were planning on filling cookie cutters with jolly ranchers and popping them in the oven. I read the directions out loud to a group of ladies who could not always think clearly, but had much life experience in the kitchen. I explained my lack of experience and started asking them what would work best. “Do you think we need waxed paper or Pam spray? Would foil work better? How many pieces of hard candy do you think it would take?” We muddled through it together as suggestions were made. We had failure and success. We had an end product, but in the end, along with laughter, we had more than that. We bonded together in the process of discerning the best courses of action.

Bring out the old clothes and Halloween costumes from the boxes in storage and become someone different. Each person uses props and dreams up a new name with new interests, dreams, and idiosyncracies. As each person internalizes his or her new role, we dialog back and forth, as we come up with different settings and circumstances. The best part is the laughter. It is a time to forget troubles.

One day I set up easels in the lounge of the nursing home where I work. We used large pieces of cardboard and large brushes. The goal is to enjoy the fluidity of the paint and watchthe colors flow. The instructions were “Just have fun with it. You can’t do it wrong.” I then added, “If you don’t like it, you can throw it away and try again.” No pressure. As one of the easels became available, I pushed Netta up to the easel. The nurses were shaking their heads at me. “She can’t do it,” someone whispered in my ear. I thought it wasn’t going to hurt to try. She painted for 45 minutes without stopping. She put paint on top of paint and watched the colors change. Netta, a woman who recently had not been able to focus on anything, was engrossed. The next week, she finished the painting….another 45 minutes.