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Whatcom Hospice Volunteer Newsletter A Prog ram of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medica l Center

VOLUNTEER VOICES Whatcom Hospice Volunteer Newsletter—

A Prog ram of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medica l Center

Whatcom Hospice, 2800 Douglas Ave., Bellingham, WA

98225 360.733.5877 Fax: 360.788.6884

Editor/Volunteer Coordinator: Dianne Gillespie

360.788.6892 dgillespie@peacehealth.org

Hospice House Volunteer Associates: 360.788.6885.

Noreen Fassler: nfassler@peacehealth.org

Amie Carr: acarr@peacehealth.org

Whatcom Hospice Manager: Patricia MacDonald

pmacdonald@peacehealth.org

August 2016

You Are Invited to Attend the PeaceHealth

Picnic at One of the Following Locations:

(Wear Your Badge!) Main campus (Hospital, Squalicum Pkwy.) –

Wednesday, August 10, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. in the grassy area near the main entrance on the west side of Main Campus.

South Campus (Chestnut St.) – Wednesday, August 10, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. (BBQ chicken luncheon with strawberry shortcake)

Cordata (Cordata & Horton) – Friday, August 12, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

This year’s caregiver picnics will include a mouth-watering menu of Caribbean cuisine:

Beer & herb brined brick chicken

Chile rubbed smoked port with sweet Cuban rolls – pickles & mustard

Jerk spice grilled tofu

Yellow rice

Slow cooked black beans

Roasted & grilled plantains w/ dried chiles & lime juice

Grilled pineapple w/ spiced rum molasses

Coconut ice cream sundae bar

Water & soda There will be a dunk tank with proceeds to be donated to “Behind the Cross – Caring for Our Own,” a program to support our fellow co-workers in need of financial support.

Amie Carr Has Left Her Volunteer Associate Position and

has taken the Full-Time Position at the Administration Front Desk

Amie has been a comfort and a friend at the

hospice house these past two years.

Fortunately, we don’t need to say good-by, as

she fills the position left by Jenny. You may stop

by to say “Hi” any time. Her Volunteer Associate

position is posted on the PeaceHealth website.

Here is her letter to the hospice house

volunteers:

I wanted to let you all know that I have accepted a full-time position in the Hospice Administration Building. I have absolutely loved my time working with you all at Hospice House over the last two years! It will take a bit of time to hire a replacement for me at Hospice House, so Noreen will be filling in as much as she can, and you may see a few new faces filling in here or there, too. I’ll just be across the parking lot, so please don’t hesitate to call me at x5877 if something comes up and there isn’t a Volunteer Associate in the building. In the meantime, you can still reply to both myself and Noreen in emails to make sure we are keeping track of changes to the volunteer schedule, and any concerns or questions that may pop up.

You all are truly the best, and it’s been a privilege to spend my days with you!

Warmly,

Amie Community Volunteers: Please remember to call or

email Dianne as soon as you know you will or have

missed a visit. All staff and volunteers must report this

information as soon as it is known in order to be

compliant with regulations. Thank You!

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The New Joy of Coloring

Cheer up, chill out, and get your creative juices flowing with this summer’s hottest trend

By Hillari Dowdle

It’s 8 p.m., and I’m in the zone. I’ve been here for about an hour now. The world and its cares have dropped away. Work stress, money worries, health concerns and arguments with my 9-year-old son have all faded. That nattering voice in my head that usually gets busy nagging, judging and replaying the slights and hurts of the day has been silenced.

A total transformation of mind and spirit had taken place. It’s just me, the book in front of me, a box of 48 Prisma-color pencils and a simple choice: coral or turquoise? Turquoise, I decide,, planning the way I’ll run a blue-green-silver color scheme through a section of the beautiful pattern I’m working on. I’m coloring in my Posh Adult Coloring Book: Soothing Designs for Fun & Relaxation (Andrews McMeel_—and as I’ve worked, my frown has literally turned upside down.

As of this minute, you can color me happy.

The Coloring Craze Takes Off

That’s right, I’m a middle-aged woman who’s spending her evenings these days coloring. And I’m hardly alone. Others have caught on to the magical, mood-lifting power of their erstwhile childhood pastime, and together we’re giving rise to a craze unsurpassed since the days we had Donny Osmond fever. There’s a new world of intricate, beautiful coloring books aimed at adults—and we’re snapping them up like hotcakes.

What exactly does a grown-up color, you may ask? Think paisleys, botanicals, animals, mandelas (symbols used in Hinduism or Buddhism that represent wholeness), enchanted forests, cats, decorative fans and Benedict Cumberbatch. Yes, there’s a Colour Me Good Benedict Cumberbatch coloring book (part of cheeky line of books by British illustrator Mel Elliott that also features Tyan Gosling and Taylor Swift). It’s even rumored that a Game of Thrones coloring book is in the works.

Benedict Cumberbatch aside, the majority of adults who color want to create something beautiful. Take Andie Ray, 48, a real estate agent in Knoxville, Tenn. When she first laid eyes on an adult coloring book “my heart just jumped,” Ray recalls. “Right away, I bought two: Magic Garden (Barron’s) and Mandala Magic (Barron’s).”

Like me, she finds coloring an easy way to downshift in the midst of a busy life. “Everything else in my life is hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. I’m constantly bombarded, and I always have trouble calming down,” she says. “But now I turn off the computer and TV, and I have this beautiful hobby to go to. I decide what I want to do, how much I want to work on tonight, and immediately I’m more relaxed and happier.”

Color for Your Health

While other hobbies might relax you, coloring offers complete absorption. “It engages both sides of your brain in that it’s both creative and tactical,” says psychologist Alice Domar, Ph.D., executive director of the Domar Center for Mind/Body Health in Boston. The creativity comes with envisioning the color selection and how it will play throughout the piece, while the tactical involves applying your decisions to the artist’s design. Both keep your right brain from taking over and wandering where it wants, as it does when you just doodle.

“It’s impossible to worry about dinner or the laundry or anything else when your mind is completely engaged,” Domar explains. “With knitting or other crafts, you can watch TV or multitask, but coloring really requires you to be in the moment. And that makes it meditative.” She suggests coloring to patients who need stress relief, particularly those who loved the activity as a child. “Coloring brings you back to a simpler time, it’s pleasurable, it’s a chance to sit and be mindful...and at the end you get this beautiful result. You have a real sense of accomplishment.”

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“I saw coloring books on Amazon, and was immediately intrigued,” says Kevin Tober, 50, of

Pompano Beach, FL. “I ordered a few and some markers and really found the process of coloring the more involved mandala-type designs to be extremely relaxing. I am disabled with chronic pain, so anything that enables me to escape to a meditative mindset is a huge benefit to me.”

Collaboration & Sharing

Part of the joy of coloring is co-creating the page with the designer of the book. “By choosing a range of colors and where to place them in the design, you are creating something unique,” says P.C.Turczyn, a mandala artist who leads workshops at New York’s Omega Institute and often offers her students pages to color as a way to open the coor to creativity.

Welsh artist Millie Marotta, author of the lush Animal Kingdom (Lark Crafts), a book that has sold over a million copies worldwide, intentionally makes coloring books as a co-creative experience. “I see it as a collaboration between me and the people who are coloring. The illustrations start off looking exactly the same, but are turned into something absolutely unique,” she says. “After many hours of coloring, the illustrations are very much their own artworks.”

Many who color can’t resist sharing the fruits of their creativity. Social media feeds are filled with colored creations, and Pinterest boasts a myriad of coloring boards. Posting coloring pages has become the 21st-century version of hanging pictures on the fridge!

Co-Creating the Calm

Coloring may be a meditative pursuit, but it works in gatherings too, for both socialization and group therapy. Shyla Jannusch, 43, hosts coloring parties in Chicago and started a Coloring for All! Facebook page. Today, that group has upwards of 3,800 members. “Coloring is a way to build bonds with other people with no judgment,” she says. “It’s almost like an old-fashioned quilting bee—a place where lading get together to talk, color and share their lives with one another.”

By contrast, my own first group experience with three girlfriends came after a shared trauma—the death of a loved one. We had much to talk about but needed soothing too. Coloring together provided the latter, the strokes moving the conversation from hyper-emotional tears toward calm philosophical musings and shared memories. As ease settled among us, the books and pens and pencils fell by the wayside. Once again, we’d been colored calm.

Hillari Dowdle is a former editor-in-chief of Yoga Journal and currently a Web editor and writer based in Knoxville, TN.

Color Your Mood

Colors themselves carry ther-

apeutic qualities, according to

licensed clinical professional

art therapist Lacy Mucklow,

co-author of the coloring

books Color Me Happy and

Color Me Calm. Selecting col-

ors can literally affect your

mood. Here’s a guide to how

you can use colors to rev up

or calm down—or combine

them for a total mood make-

over.

Cool Colors like blue, green

and purple have a calming

effect. Use them to literally

chill out.

Warm Colors like red, or-

ange, and yellow are pepper-

uppers. Try them when you

want to brighten a bad mood.

Bright Colors are energizing,

so turn to them when you

want a little inner lift.

Dark Colors carry a relaxing

energy and can be used to

ratchet down an overactive

mind.

Pastels and light tints com-

municate softness and help

soothe the soul.