Senior Times Let’s Connect…

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by Susan Smith, Executive Director, Kemptville & District Home Support

Change is all around us. I just went for a walk around my gardens and I noticed a lot of changes. The gardens, where sun-loving flowers once flourished, are turning into shade gardens. This is due to the trees that we keep adding to the garden. One of the most interesting additions is the ‘Kentucky Coffee Tree’ that I bought at a garden centre auction a number of years ago. This year, we spied seed pods on the tree – I somehow missed the flowers. I will have to nab the pods before the squirrels and chipmunks get them. It is going to be fun to try to grow trees from seed.

Heraclitus, Greek philosopher, notably wrote: “The only thing that is constant is change.” In thinking of the changes in the garden, I thought about the changes in my life, and the realization that we do bring certain changes on ourselves; and, like my gardens, our lives continue to evolve. Over the years, I have come to realize that life is not meant to stay the same. As we grow and experience different things: read books, magazines and articles; watch TV and movies; meet a variety of people, and visit different places both near and further away, we do change by increasing our knowledge and perspective.

‘The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.’ Socrates has a point: in not fighting the ‘what is’, but in building ‘new’ in our lives. I believe that we are supposed to be joyful, and that our thoughts can change the way we experience life.

One of my most favourite quotes is from the Apostle Paul: ‘…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely , whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” (NIV Philippians 4:8) I have embraced these words through many changes in my life, both positive and otherwise.

We have had some recent changes here at Kemptville & District Home Support. Bev Nye has retired after over 17 years with KDHSI. This is very exciting for her! It has been an absolute pleasure working with Bev for the past five years. We have recently welcomed Ann Miller to our Team, and she has been getting to know many of the people that come into the office, and those on the phone.

Our activities will see a change in the Fall, with two instructors leaving us. Gayle Holmes is retiring from teaching the art class; and Tina Veilleux from teaching Create-a-Card. Thank you so much for all of your creativity and energy that you have put into the classes. I will certainly miss seeing both of you on a weekly basis, as will so many others!

Please keep your ideas coming for new activities. It will be exciting to see what changes come next. Let’s ‘build the new’ together. Wishing everyone a very enJOYable day!
Until next time,

Susan

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