Resthaven

Often in aged care residents may feel that they can’t ‘do’ anything. One year staff assisted residents to create a butterfly. They did the cutting, the glueing, the creating. Some residents only had the use of one hand, yet were able to take part.

As part of Easter services we folded stones in paper on Good Friday and placed them at the foot of the cross. On Easter Sunday they walked in to see the butterfly they had created. Beauty emerged from those hard wrapped things. It had a huge visual impact, but more importantly, for the rest of the long weekend, residents told their families ‘come into the hall and see what we made.’ There was a sense of accomplishment, dignity and pride in contributing not just to a decoration, but a transformation of their understanding of what they could do! In the weeks following Christmas and after a challenging time with COVID, it has been hard to feel that life is beginning once more. Some residents are more physically unwell and may be this way for some time after their bout with COVID. Others are emotionally flat, needing coaxing out of their rooms to engage with activities and life once more. At Paradise they are having a ‘We Survived COVID Party!’ There will be COVID balls to bat away, ridiculous decorations and general silliness to mark that we have all been through something. We are not the same as we were, but we are still here. There is still life to be lived, family to see, conversations to be had and life will come again in all its fullness.

Each year in autumn we pause and reflect on the question, why are leaves the most colourful at the end of their lives? Sometimes with all the white and grey heads, we do not feel colourful. Asking questions though, helps to see that inside those grey and white heads are stories of journeys to new, different lands, tales of the horror and triumph of war, creativity with paintbrush, pen, clay and metal. Children encouraged, people healed, the whole diversity of the world met within these stories. They are filled with many colours, shapes and textures and for those of us who come after, they tell us of why the world is like it is, how we have come to be where we are. Even as we go on and may feel like the dried up, frail and fragile leaves that have fallen. We are reminded that the leaves continue to nurture the tree, the stories continue to nourish and support, the leaves form mulch to hold in moisture, keep the soil warm in the cold winter months, to allow the tree to bloom again for another year. The stories remind us of the strength in our past, and their hope for our future.