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by Carolyn L. Brown of our Riverside Court location in Woodstock, NB. 

Where can I turn when it all goes so wrong? Will it help if I write the words in a song?  Sometime the answers are hidden away. It’s lonely and scary and really not ok.

These words start the beginning of a song I wrote quite a few years ago but somehow they do resonate occasionally, don’t they? As we embrace a new year, it can often be burdened with worries that tend to consume us and leave us wondering where to turn. Often times our response to these moments edge in to the very recesses of our minds when we are least expecting them and force us to deal with what we have so nicely kept hidden.

So here we go. How do we deal? Where do we get the strength, the energy, to face something we just don’t want to face? Weren’t “back burners” developed for a reason? The old adage “ make haste while the sun shines” may work in some cases, but often times we aren’t open to it and don’t want to hear it. Life is a constant journey of forward and backward, up and down, in and out. I guess we call it the ebb and flows of life. I often wish the ebb and flows would still just be a reference to the ocean tides and not to life tides.

glass suncatcher in a window overlooking a lawn

If anything could be an inspiration to move forward in life with a positive attitude it would be many of the residents here at the MacLeod Cares Woodstock location. We have Dalton who goes out every day with friends to Tim’s and I’m here to tell you the weather has to be pretty bad for that not to happen. A weekly Thursday shopping and lunch date is a must for Shirley and her daughters. Let me tell you when they roll in we all know it and it livens the place up quickly. Then we have Maynard who leaves early every pm to spend the rest of his day with his wife at Carleton Manor. Now I’m told by Mable she woke up early the other am with some pain and all she wanted to do was sing some of her old favourite hymns she’s heard us sing. Kay inspires us by going out for a walk every day before her son prepares her lunch, and I have to say he is a committed son. What a blessing to his mom!! Additionally we have the quilters, the knitters, the van chauffeured by Amber taking folks shopping and to outings, local churches coming in to do Thursday am services, tea times, bingo and Sunday Church.

But I also see the question I pose in the song,” where do I turn when it all goes so wrong?” answered in softer, quieter ways like one resident sitting to comfort another, helping another struggling to find their way to an activity, inviting someone to join in, giving a little gift to comfort in some way, just spending time and listening. It is an endless list but when the struggle in your mind is large, these simple gestures make those times far less lonely and scary and our actions speak loudly to who we truly are as we humble our hearts to a peaceful rhythm of time in service to others. That’s where to turn when it all seems so wrong!!