Spirit in Action

Maralene Strom - Adventures In Living

Maralene Strom is many things - a writer, speaker, caregiver, healer, storyteller, photographer - and more. Sharing from her own experiences of growth and loss, she finds ways to help others forward on their journey. She writes a column called "Adventures In Living" for the Dunn County News and is in the midst of writing three books, the earliest expected for this fall.

Duration:: 59m
Broadcast on:: 09 Jul 2006
Audio Format:: mp3

I have no hands but yours to tend my sheep. No handkerchief but yours to dry the eyes of those who weep. I have no arms but yours with which to hold. The ones grown weary from the struggle and weak from growing old. I have no voice but yours with which to see. To let my children know that I am out and out is everything. I have no way to feed the hungry souls. No clothes to give and to give the ragged and the morn. So be my heart, my hand, my tongue, through you I will be done. The enders have I none to help untie. Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpsmeet. Each week I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service. Above all I'll seek out light, love and helping hands, being shared between our many neighbors on this planet, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. My guest today on Spirit in Action is Marilyn Strum. She is many things. She is a writer, a speaker, a caregiver, healer, storyteller and a singer. And she comes with us today to share some of the stories of her growth and the stories that she shares with others as they grow forward to embrace full meaning of their lives. Good morning, Marlene. Good morning, Mark. That's so happy to be here with you. Marlene, you've got quite a story. I guess one of the things I forgot to mention that you also are or were along the way is a farmer and a photographer. There's an awful lot going on in your life. Did you grow up on a farm? In a broad sense I did not grow up on a farm. When I married, my husband came from a farming family. And then after that, when his parents retired, my husband and I engaged in having peerbred herfords. So we had a herford farm of about a hundred head and a horse, of course, because I needed a horse. I was hanging, I did all that kind of thing, because I grew up in the timber industry. I learned how to drive a truck, I could drive a semi, I could drive the loaders, I worked on the sawmill, and my father wouldn't let us drive until we could change tires and change oil. So I learned how to do that when I was young as well. But that wasn't your full-time job when you were married with your husband, was it? No. When we got married, he was getting his master's degree. We were ten years different. I married him right out of high school, and then he went into graduate school, and I started going to college. So that's what I started doing then. And then I had children, and then I went into human services. My education was in education, but I got to work in human services. I had a variety of responsibilities in human services. Then I also worked in an extended care facility as well. And I had taken a break from DHS and then worked in an extended care facility as an activity coordinator, then went back into human services. And I have to tell you that. That was most likely God's leading, because I got back into the county services. And subsequently, about four years later, my husband became very ill, and he died in like four and a half months. It was probably a good thing. I had plenty of time. I could take off. I had the whole time off. I had enough sick leave and all that kind of thing to be able to encompass that four and a half months. I didn't have to work during that time. So I had a good job, and I had the good benefits and all that kind of thing that one needed when one becomes a widow. There's just one little piece in there I missed. He was in graduate school and became a farmer. I raised her for it's or maybe this is just a sideline. Yeah, that was our sideline. My husband, he was a chemist. Actually, I had a master's degree in chemistry, math, and physics. He was quite brilliant and certainly was not my idea of a good day. So he was very left-range. I was very right-brain. But he grew up on a farm. He just always kept that tie to the farming. He was gardener. He was a fisherman. He was a hunter and all that kind of thing. But then he went to UWS where he taught, and he taught chemistry. So I've got some idea. You're both professional people. You've got some children in the mix, and you're about 34, and your husband died. That must have been a pretty traumatic event. You're already working as kind of a caregiver through the Department of Human Services through DHS. Could you heal yourself right away? No. No. By the grace of God, we had time, which doesn't always happen for people. We had time from diagnosis. I took him in to the hospital believing that he had pneumonia, and what they found was a massive tumor in his chest. And he never came home. He never came home from the hospital. He went from one hospital to the next hospital, and our life changed. And one of the benefits that I had that a lot of people don't have is I come from a medical family. My mother was a nurse. My older sister was a nurse. A lot of people think I'm a nurse. But because I was around a lot of that, I understood a lot of the processes. So I was assertive and aggressive. I wanted to know the answer. I would protect my husband. Once they found, it took eight days, but they found this massive tumor. They only expected him to live six weeks, and he lived almost five months. But he never got to come home from the hospital, and so it changed our life immediately. I put him in the hospital on his birthday, October 2nd. He died a week after Valentine's Day. And in that time, we went through quite a journey together, and I learned so much from him. And we were very pragmatic. Our children were only nine and seven. So we had to be very pragmatic about what we were doing. We decided that our children would be told the truth immediately. Now, you have to remember, this is 25 years ago, when it wasn't usual to allow children to be in the hospital. And my children got to see him at any time. I demanded that. It was going to happen. And I had wonderful doctors who supported that. And as we were processing this, we went through a lot of experiences with other people who were of a spiritual nature as well, from some from my church, home church and the like, who had different agendas. And one of the things I discovered was that people wanted to pray people out of heaven. We talk about that. We have this wonderful next life, and sometimes they were so anxious to say, "Well, he's got to be healed. He's got to be healed." And our belief, our concept, my husband's in mind, was that God would take care of whatever was going to happen on this journey. It was going to be according to the journey, what it was. Certainly, my children and I did not want him to leave. Thank you. I was 34 years old. I had two children, nine and seven. I don't want him to leave. Thank you. However, my husband shared with me his own struggle. And his struggle was, "God, you know, I have two children. I want to see them grow. It took us seven years to get them." If you don't mind, we'd like to be there. And he said that he got to the place where he just knew that whatever was to happen, and he really believed he was to leave, but he had some things he still had to do in that four and a half months, five months that was given, six weeks was not enough time. And we had this opportunity to process together and to go through things that I had to learn as well about letting God do whatever was necessary to accomplish my husband's mission. I kept a journal during that period of time, and I had this image for a long time that we were on this airplane. I love to fly. I suppose that's why I thought of airplanes. That we were encircling the airport. And I believe that what was going to happen is that we were going to land, and he was going to get off the plane and go on a different plane. The night before he died, I was writing in my journal, and I said, "I finally figured this one out." What I figured out was that the plane indeed was going to land. We were on his journey, but his journey now was to complete on its own. We were the ones getting off the plane. The children and I were getting off the plane because our journey was a different flight, and that he was going to complete the flight on his own and go into eternity. He had told me he had several dreams, several dreams that were quite profound. One of them was quite early, it was probably about six weeks into it, and he almost died. He was in surgery four times, and he almost died, and I said to him, I said, "You almost died." He said, "No, I wasn't supposed to then." I said, "Well, really?" I said, "See, you're back here." We did have a sense of humor to do. What he described was that he had been in this dream. He was on a hive cliff with mountains. We love mountains, and we travel a lot, and it was like a set of bleachers, and I thought, "Well, that's interesting. Bleachers, he loved basketball." I thought, "Bleachers and mountains, this is what follows." What he saw was that there was these people coming to take people on their journey, and when they came to him, he was told, "Not yet. Your mission's not finished yet." It's because of him sharing with me these kinds of things, I really recognized that we come to this earth with only a prescribed number of days. That is a for sure-ism. That is a for sure-ism. We have a mission, and we either will do it or we don't do it, but we have a mission to accomplish, and God will make sure that we have the time to do that mission in this allotted amount of days. They say there's a universal plan for every woman. For every man, I do believe there's a higher power, but in our darkest hour, it's hard to understand, so we start to question, start to doubt. We lose faith in what life's all about. Why did the right want take the wrong turn? Why did our heart break? Why'd we get burned just like the seasons? There are reasons for the path we take, there are no mistakes, just lessons to be loved. Don't keep on looking deep inside, let your heart be your guide, cause there's a gift for those who keep believing, you'll find what you've been needing, is right before your eyes, you'll hold the answer in your hands, and then you'll know, you'll finally understand why did that right want take that wrong turn? Why did our heart break, and why'd we get burned just like the seasons? There are reasons for the path we take, there are no mistakes, just lessons to be loved. No matter how many times you stumble before, the greatest lesson is loving yourself through it all, why did the right want take a wrong turn? Why did our heart break, why'd we get burned just like the seasons? There are reasons for the path we take, there are no mistakes, just lessons, lessons to be loved. My heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, my heart changed, and I was going to have to move on with the same faith that I had, the same connection that I had with God, and my life was going to be different. I was going to have to move on with the same faith that I had with God, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and I was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and I was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, and my life was going to be different, because my belief is that God breathed his life into me, he is in my heart already. You constantly refer to God as he, which I think is normal enough for most people, but in some ways I have the feeling that you have a very non-traditional picture of God compared to what your Baptist upbringing gave you, what strands of your Baptist beliefs feel real strong and clear to you, and which ones have changed? I don't tell people I'm a Baptist, I'm not, and I suppose I would follow a more global Christian philosophy if we're going to talk about that. When I look at what happens like the transition into eternity death, however people like to talk about it, I look at I'm going to make a transition into eternity, and I get a chance to really behold God, have I seen him before in some way, shape, or form, I suspect so. In the Mormon tradition we are all spirits up in heaven, and that we get to come back, we are born into this world. So there is that understanding in Mormon tradition. I believe that too, I believe that God had me already. Do I believe in past lives and that kind of thing? Sometimes I think that that's a truism. Sometimes it baffles my mind. And when it comes right down to it, I have to live in the now. This is my life that I'm living now. I am not afraid to die. If I get another chance to come back down here again and do something better, I'll go for it. Some people who I know would say to me, "Marlene, how could have you changed so much?" I don't look at dogma, I guess anymore. I don't look at that there's only one way to look at things. I think that the only thing I am sure of is God is. That's all I'm really sure of. God is. And with God being who he is, or she, or whatever, it makes no difference as far as I'm concerned, is that my responsibility is to live this life, the very best that I can, to live the principles as best as I understand them from my Baptist background, from my understanding from Mormon tradition, Native American traditions, whatever, to live a life that is pleasing to the Creator. Often when I write, I write Creator. I always feel that's a little more universal. It's not because I'm cutting God out or anything like that. I no longer believe I have to do certain things to connect to God. I don't have a problem with other people connecting to God the way they need to connect. What path do they have to take to get to God? Do they have to be born again? Some do. I love listening to Joel Olstein. I listen to this guy a lot. I happen to like this guy. Some feel that he's too social. I like a lot of stuff that he says. I like reading Wayne Dyer. There's a wonderful guy out there named Adam Casey. He's a coach for spiritual healers. He's great. And he comes from a Sufi background. That's where his tradition is now, Sufiism. He's very spiritual, very connected to God. And when I meet people like this across the board, go past the doctrines, go past all these kinds of things that go on, I feel their presence of God with him. Harold Kushner, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote the book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. But I read an afterword that he had written in one of his books. He wrote it after 9/11. And one of the profound things he said, because people were so scared, you know, oh, this terrible we've had. And it was a terrible thing that happened to us. But he was talking about the development of faith, the development of different faiths. And he talked about Judaism, getting to about 1200 to 1400 years. And he called it the adolescence, but there was a period of time when that faith kind of wanted everybody to be this faith. And they got kind of out of hand, and there was massacres and all that kind of thing. Then he talked about Christianity. Christianity did about the same thing, 12 to 1400 years. And we had inquisitions and crusades and all that kind of thing, because some men somewhere said, you know, we've got to make everybody be in our faith. And then he said, you see it now with Muslim faith, they're in their adolescence too. And they're going through that part of their development. And I think that probably was cemented for me, the understanding that a lot of times what church, what it becomes religion, and when religion gets a hierarchy, to me that becomes a political environment, it becomes politics almost. I am saying that most everybody else was connected to God. They had to live regular lives. They weren't sitting in cloisters trying to figure out what it was to be acceptable and ordinary people like you and I were living their lives. And they had faith, was their connection with God, just like you and me, anybody who's listening to this, you're living regular lives. It's not your church hierarchy that's doing it, you're living a life, and you are connected to God and however you're connected, that's real faith. That's the stitching of your life, that holds my quilt together, that's what I know for sure. Marlene, I think a lot of what you do, particularly with your storytelling and with the articles you write for the Dunn County News, I think a lot of what you do is help people forward in their growth, in their transitions, in their moving on. You talk about God and the Creator so much in what makes sense to you. Is it something that you think that they need in order to move forward? Do they need this spiritual basis to make their transitions? What I write and speak about is to get people to also be more open to difference. Because there isn't a lot of difference here, for the most part, we don't often have that kind of diversity. So when we look at differences, we sometimes are scared of them. I came here beginning to write columns about diversity. Because I had this wonderful experience of diversity, I've written a lot about that, to not shame people, but to open up to people. That diversity, that tradition, that commonality of our human spirit. I tell the story about the Singaporean Malay who, during the war, was 12 years old. And when England left Singapore, left it open to the Japanese at that time who were coming across China and came down into Singapore, he lived on one of the outer islands. And he remembered waking up, he lived in a house of stilts and watching bodies come up and they were Chinese bodies. There was a genocide during that war that nobody wanted to talk about, that we were so worried about what was going on in Germany and that kind of thing. These people, what they went through, that commonality of spirit, I mean, when I talked to this man and talked to him, a man of faith, he was Muslim. He was a man of faith, how God intervened for him. Ireland was taken over by the Japanese lieutenant, how gracefully this man of leadership, who did not want to kill any Chinese, did not want to do that, figured out a way to have it so that the Chinese could live. And how this quiet Japanese lieutenant did this, this man of spirit as well. And my Malaysian friend, he had Chinese friends, of course, they were Chinese and Malay living on that little island, and how he befriended that Japanese lieutenant and how he recognized at 12 years old, that even though he'd seen bodies of Chinese washed up, not one Chinese person was killed on that island, because of a Japanese lieutenant who had the grace of God in him, who, despite what all was going on in that piece of the world, he saved Chinese lives. To me, we have to look at people as individuals, God created all of us, and he sits within our hearts, the essence is there, that's what I try to bring out in my columns and bring out in that there's the sameness from the creator. I don't care what religion you are, I really don't. What do you do with God? What is your faith? That's the difference. Religion, there's lots of people practice religion. People who go to war over religion, that wasn't faith, that was religion, that was different. I'm just not quite sure how you see this issue. If someone's dealing with loss, with grief, maybe they're stuck, they haven't turned over their quilt yet, is there some spiritual resource they need to reach in and grab in order to make that transition, even if they think they're an atheist? I'm never sure that there's always really an atheist, I think we all cling on to something, we all hold to some kind of value, some kind of thing. When it comes to dealing with loss and grief, Eric Tolle wrote this great book called Now, Living in the Now. I think across the board, we have to live in the Now. The thing is, is that when you're dealing with grief, you're either living in the past and staying there, and that's when you're stuck, or you take today what is today and what can I do today and move forward. We have to cut our losses. And I think that's whether you have faith or not have faith, because I'm not here to tell people that they have to do something, personally, in my own life, I think, that I need it to have this faith, because I so strongly believe in God. My husband was a scientist, I don't know how many times people I asked him, "How can you be a scientist and believe in God?" He says, "It's exactly why I believe in God, because I am a scientist." And he grew up as a Baptist, too. What he said was, "I look at science and I see God in science." It didn't just happen. There is design to what happened. I think ultimately, people find their way to some kind of faith and for us to move on. It's not a living faith if we stay stuck. And usually, in my experience, I have found when I've done a lot of death and dying kind of things, is that people who stay stuck are usually angry and think it could have been changed. I mean, how many times do people lose somebody and then want to sue a doctor? It's your fault, you didn't do it. I don't think I'm answering your question when it comes down to it here. Because I don't know if I have that good answer. I think that ultimately, if they're going to turn their quilt, that's an act of choice. That's a conscious choice. That doesn't sit there and say, "You've got to turn that quilt over." This is your journey. What is your stitching? That's the question I ask you. What is it that's going to hold your life together? Is it faith? In my case, it's faith. And somebody else's case, it might be something else, it might be family, it might be whatever. What is it that holds your life together? But what gives you that courage to turn that quilt over and move on? And one of the things I want to be really heard about, it isn't just death that we suffer loss from. When I do my presentations, I say, "I don't know what kind of loss you've had. Could it be a loss of a relationship? Could it be a loss of a child? Could it be a loss of a job? Do you stay stuck? Can you turn the quilt over?" You do a lot of speaking with your adventures in a living program. You also do a fair amount of writing. Besides the opinion column that you write for the Dunn County News, you're in the process of three different books, I think, right at the moment that you're co-writing or writing yourself. Can you tell me a little about what those are and how you come about to those, and how do those speak of what you're trying to convey to people? I've written a lot of columns, and out of that, there's been a couple themes. One of the themes is discovering meaning after loss. So I'm putting a compilation of those together, coming up with some new material as well. So that's one of the books. The other one is on some of the caregiving, I'm pulling that together because I'd written a lot about caregiving experiences, and I'm calling that one the raccoon and the storyteller coming out of my Native American background. The raccoon is considered the generous protector, and I equate that to the caregiver. And a storyteller, I equate to the person who is being cared for. Because in my experience, the people we care for, they aren't just a patient. They are our teachers, they are our storytellers. It says in Native American tradition that the storytellers, the holder of expansion. So that's the second book, and I'm pretty far along with that one. And the third one I'm doing, I'm co-authoring, with a gentleman from Australia, his name is John Ahern. He has done a lot of motivational speaking, and a very spiritual person, and he's had this be in his bonnet for quite some time about writing a book about 40 and beyond. John and I both share this passion that you can't get stuck. Well, apparently in Australian culture, 40 is like our 50, and when we turn 50, we kind of say, "Oh, what more is there? Half of our life is over, and all this kind of thing, and some people just kind of get stuck." Well, apparently it's at the age of 40 in Australia, and John has just turned 40, and I'm about to turn 60. And so we're co-authoring this book, 40 and beyond, looking at what people have accomplished after 40, the different stages of our lives, and people that we've come across and that we're soliciting for, and some of these experiences. We are hoping to have it out by the fall, we'll be putting up a website about 40 and beyond as well. So you've got a lot of work ahead of you. You've got your speaking engagements, you've got books to be working on, to be finishing up. Getting out here, you write your column regularly for the Dunn County News, you've got your posters that you produce, your beautiful photography combined with inspirational statements, you've got all of that. Do you sleep at all? I do. I really do, but I do wake up very early. And I can't do everything at the same time, so some stuff gets put on hold, and all comes out in the right time. But I look at each day as an adventure in living, and I've said this for a long time. I'm about to turn 60. I learned how to mountain bike. I learned how to bike, and I fall down a lot when I try to mountain bike. But every day, I keep looking for new experiences. There's one strand of the discussion about your religious faith, your background, that I wanted to ask you about, because it seems to me that you have a whole boiler full of spiritual steam to keep you moving and going places. One of the things for me as a Quaker that I identify as real important in helping me keep going forward is having a strong community, community of faith, as it works for me. But I'm assuming that somehow there's some kind of a grounded spiritual community that you're a part of, even if you're not part of a religious faith, that upholds you and moves you forward. I think I do have a strong spiritual community, but I don't think it's very traditional. Probably it's not traditional, because when I left Wisconsin 14, 15 years ago, and returned about four years ago, whatever. I tend to be a connector. I'm a networker. I have a strong spiritual community of a lot of people, but they're not necessarily local people, and I have lived in numerous places, and I have had numerous experiences. But I've always connected to spiritual people. When I think that I need a spiritual mentor, it may be somebody I connect with that's overseas. It may be somebody that I connect with some place here in the States. My spiritual community, I think, is very broad, because for the most part, I kept connected. For one thing, I was traveling all the time, I was moving all the time, so I learned that my spiritual community wasn't necessarily a cinder block place to be. I discovered for myself that my community was worldwide, so it's true I'm not a member of a fellowship, but I go to your services as to anybody else's and find God there. I think our hours about up here, Marlene. One last thing I wanted to mention, you do this speaking. How do people get a hold of you if they want you to talk about your quilts and your adventures and living and this kind of thing? Well, how you can get a hold of me is write me an email at Marlene@adventuresinlivingsight.com. I think you better spell out Marlene for them, because most people don't know how you spell Marlene. Yes, my mother did not know how to spell, so this is how you spell Marlene, it's M-A-R-A-L-E-N-E. Adventures in Living Site, that's S-I-T-E.com. And shortly we will have a website up so that you'll be able to connect through there. And I also produce a newsletter, and if you would like to get the newsletter, just let me know through that email. And once I get the website up, you'll be able to sign up for the newsletter there. I put out an Adventures in Living Journal and connect with lots of people and try to give you really good information and some good inspiration as well. That site will be Adventures in Living Site.com, right? Right, Adventures in Living Site.com. Thanks for joining me, sharing your adventures. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity and to share with you today. Really appreciate it. You've been listening to a visit with writer, speaker, adventurer Marlene Strum. You can listen to this program and others via my website, northernspiritradio.org, where you will also find additional information and links. Music featured on this program has included Lessons to Be Learned by Barbara Streisand, Potter's Wheel by John Denver. This is the day subtitled Barry's Bar Mitzvah Song by Debbie Friedman. The theme music for Spirit in Action is "I Have No Hands But Yours" by Carol Johnson. Thank you for listening. I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. You can email me at helpsmeet@usa.net. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. I have no hide or call for you and peace to love and serve your neighbor. Enjoying selflessness, to love and serve your neighbor. Enjoying selflessness. Music. Music.