REFLECTIONS
The Dragonfly Story
Why is it important to support hospice?
A Friend Who Cares
Poem
Musicians reunite at Queen's Park
Meeting Lyall Winlaw
THE DRAGONFLY STORY
Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of water bugs. They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun. For many months they were very busy, scurrying over the soft mud on the bottom of the pond. They did notice that every once in awhile one of their colony seemed to lose interest in going about. Clinging to the stem of a pond lily it gradually moved out of sight and was seen no more.
"Look!" said one of the water bugs to another. "One of our colony is climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you think she is going?" Up, up, up it slowly went... Even as they watched, the water bug disappeared from sight. Its friends waited and waited but it didn't return…
"That's funny!" said one water bug to another. "Wasn't she happy here?" asked a second… "Where do you suppose she went?" wondered a third.
No one had an answer. They were greatly puzzled. Finally one of the water bugs, a leader in the colony, gathered its friends together. "I have an idea". "The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went and why."
"We promise", they said solemnly.
One spring day, not long after, the very water bug that had suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up, he went. Before he knew what was happening, he had broken through the surface of the water and fallen onto the broad, green lily pad above.
When he awoke, he looked about with surprise. He couldn't believe what he saw. A startling change had come to his old body. His movement revealed four silver wings and a long tail. Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings… The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from the new body. He moved his wings again and suddenly found himself up above the water. He had become a dragonfly!!
Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere. By and by, the new dragonfly lighted happily on a lily pad to rest. Then it was that he chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why, he was right above his old friends, the water bugs! There they were, scurrying around, just as he had been doing some time before.
The dragonfly remembered the promise: "the next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell where he or she went and why." Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down. Suddenly he hit the surface of the water and bounced away. Now that he was a dragonfly, he could no longer go into the water…
"I can't return!" he said in dismay. "At least, I tried. But I can't keep my promise. Even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would know me in my new body. I guess I'll just have to wait until they become dragonflies too. Then they'll understand what has happened to me, and where I went."
And the dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful new world of sun and air...
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO SUPPORT HOSPICE?
As a volunteer, I spend time at Hospice on a weekly basis. While I am there, I interact with patients, their family and friends. Going through the loss of a friend or family member is one of the hardest tasks that life calls on us to experience and each of us travels that road differently. The patient must say goodbye to life as they have known it. We must say goodbye to them. What is common is the need for a safe, accepting, supportive environment where that hard road can be traveled. Crossroads Hospice is that place. Repeatedly, I have seen patients and families arrive apprehensive, anxious, uncertain. Once they have been at Inlet Centre for a short while, see how things work and what help is available, they seem to give a sigh of relief and sense they have arrived at a haven. This sense of Hospice as a haven is expressed in many ways in the thank you cards that come to us after patients have died. Common themes are "you made a terrible time bearable", "our family could not have survived without your support", "the care you gave our loved one gave us comfort", "we learned we could laugh through the pain". The staff and volunteers are often referred to as "angels". It is a short distance it appears between haven and heaven.
Inlet Centre is a community treasure that the community brought into being. Each one of us will be faced in some way with the death of someone dear to us. Each of us would hope for the haven of hospice for them and ourselves when that happens. That is why it is important to support Crossroads Hospice.
Dawn McDonald
A FRIEND WHO CARES
"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.
The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief or bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing, and face us with the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares".
By Henri Nouwen
POEM
In answer to the cry of the spirit
Hospice says we will be here
We will be here with you in your living
and in your dying.
We will free you from pain
and give you the freedom to find your own meaning in your life-
your way.
We will comfort you and those you love -
not always with words,
often with a touch or a glance.
We will bring you hope -
not for tomorrow, but for this day.
We will not leave you.
We will be here.
by Dorothy DH Ley
MUSICIANS REUNITE AT QUEEN'S PARK
March 11, 2009
Hi, my name is Robin Smith and I volunteer for Crossroad Hospice Society at Queen's Park Hospice.
Constant is a patient there whom I got to be friends with. We are pretty close in age and both into music which is really cool. Anyways, you will never guess what happened.
We were talking about music and which concerts we had seen, I have a photo album at home with a pretty good selection of bands I have seen (none taken by me). Constant is a base player who used to play in a band called Delaragus. I used to hang around a band called the "Schoolboys".
Now the Schoolboys played a gig up at Salmo. It was called Hidden Creek Outdoor Rock Festival which was held at Salmo, BC, 1983. It was a two-day concert with the Schoolboys and 5 other bands, one of them being Dalaragus.
What absolutely put the icing on the cake was the fact that one of my pictures in my photo album is of Dalaragus. When I brought in my album, just to show him, when he got to the page with the ticket on it, he excitedly said that his band played there and when we got to his picture… Well, what a fluke!!
MEETING LYALL WINLAW
Submitted by Bill Bjerkness
March 3, 2009
I couldn't believe what I was seeing!
Forty-nine years ago we were listening to "The Neighbours Show" on radio CJNB, North Battleford, Saskatchewan. The radio announcer was spinning another song about Alberta when I said, "Why doesn't someone write a song about Saskatchewan?" I think I would sing it myself." Then I thought, "why not," so on April 13, 1960 I wrote a song called, "A True Saskatchewan Pioneer". The next day we drove to North Battleford and when I handed the song to him, I said, "There you go Lyall, sing this one." He assured me that he didn't sing but if I had a tune for it he would arrange for me to record it. He played it on the station that afternoon.
Now, on February 1, 2009 Velma and I were singing at the Crossroads Inlet Centre Hospice in Port Moody, BC. Near the end of our set a gentleman came into the room in a wheelchair. He said he was sorry he had missed most of the singing and as he left to go back to his room I noticed his name on his wheelchair, Lyall Winlaw. I asked him if he had been a radio man in North Battleford. He said he had so I asked if he remembered that occasion and told him about the song he had inspired. Before we left that day I sang the song for him and he asked for a copy of it. We were able to get it on a CD and delivered it to him at the Hospice.
We were able to see him a couple more times before he passed away on February 19, 2009. I'm so glad we were able to be with him again after 49 years.
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