April 2023
Gurus Come When You Need Them on the Journey
At 97 years old, Lucile (Lucy) Wood has some lived wisdom. “I never thought I’d leave Iowa,” she told me again. “I took a nursing class in Chicago and one of my classmates was in Amarillo, Texas. She invited me to come down and join her. I wasn’t sure. And my parents did not answer whether I should when I asked them. So, then it dawned on me, if I went and I didn’t like it, I could always go back home to Iowa.”
She did not go back. From Amarillo operating room to West Virginia coalminers’ care to desegregating nursing supervisors in Atlanta to writing basic nursing textbooks for University of California at Los Angeles to Oregon Coast clinic to Omaha where she stayed. She has outlived her husband Hi by 20 years but is sure they will meet again someday.
Lucy was a pillar at First United Methodist Church in Omaha. She directed the health ministry when I first started attending in 1999. The church had split over a same-sex wedding. There was a lot of congregational healing needed. Lucy’s ministry was more on the individual level. Healthy living for members of our church and the community beyond.
In her last chapter of her life, Lucy has looked back and seen that it was good. “My time’s coming to an end, but I’ve been truly blessed,” she said. “It’s neat to be as old as I am. I’m alone in my apartment a lot, so I have time to do life review.” Life review is a process she uses to take a journey through the decades. Remembering the turning points, the people who made a difference, and lessons learned along the way. “We’re not smart enough at the beginning to know all the pluses and minuses that will come at the end,” she told me over lunch of meatloaf, gravy and mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetable that I brought to her apartment in Elmwood Tower.
Lucy has a positive but realistic view of humanity. “The majority of people I’ve come across are mostly good folks. However, we all have our defects.”
She went on to tell me that a spiritual turning point was joining the Covenant Community that met every other month for many years at St. Benedict’s Monastery about an hour’s drive outside of Omaha. Those were important times for Lucy to “be away and look within.” Getting out of the daily routine was important for those who took part. Many were clergy. Mostly Methodists. “Before the Covenant Community I would just immediately respond to anything that came along. But after, it taught me to wait, give time to think and pray, then respond. I had not heard of discernment before that. And I expected all these ministers to have all the answers. And they don’t! When you see just their façade, it’s disappointing. But we were all journeying together.”
I told Lucy that she was going to be a chapter in a book I am writing called “Wisdom from a Guru: Lessons from a Life of Listening.” She wondered, “What on Earth have I ever said that should go in your book.” I said that I count her as one of those gurus who has shared with me a lot of wisdom over the years. Then she popped one wiser nugget. “Gurus come when you need them on the journey.”