Dear Spirit Song,
Oh how I have missed singing with all of you, as well as with our friends at Woodbury Estates!
So much has changed in our world and in our daily lives in just a few short days. As we each do our part to “flatten the curve” through social distancing, let’s make sure we continue to connect with one another, with our loved ones, with our neighbors—reach out with a phone call or note, especially to those who are alone, or who may need support.
One way we can send some love to our friends at St Therese and Stonecrest would be by writing letters. St. Therese reached out this week:
“Residents are missing visits from their family, friends and volunteers. Here is an old-fashioned way you can help – write letters. Residents will surely love to hear from you!
If you have children (or grandchildren) home from school – how about making cards, drawing pictures and writing fun letters to residents? Can you imagine how much fun it will be for the seniors to open their mail? Letters and cards of encouragement to the staff members would be welcome too!” (Stonecrest loved this idea, and would welcome any and all cards and letters)
Letters and cards can be mailed to:
Saint Therese of Woodbury
7555 Bailey Road
Woodbury, MN 55129
Stonecrest
8725 Promenade Lane
Woodbury, MN 55125
And let’s make sure to keep on singing!!
Here are a couple of ways I’m hoping to help keep the singing going, and our community connected:
- Today, with the excellent help of my daughter Julia and her friend Mary Perez, I was able to send Chaplain Basil and our Woodbury Estates friends a video of one of their favorite sing along songs: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, complete with actions and accompanied by guitar. Basil was thrilled and excited to share it with the residents, and is ready for more! We are now working on setting up a you tube channel so these can be posted there, and easily accessed. It would be great to have a variety of folks “lead” a song or two there, once we get it set up.
- Taking the lead of the Italians, our household started our first 6:00 p.m. community sing: We stood on our front steps and sang that very same song! In future days, we’d love to propose the idea of a song of the day. . . at 6:00 every night, everyone go outside and sing that song at the same time, and invite others to do the same thing. Thursday’s song: You Are My Sunshine! Go for it! I’d love to crowdsource song ideas. . let me know your ideas!
- Of course Thursday night is Rehearsal night, so get ready! I’ll be sending out rehearsal notes, and while I don’t think we will be quite ready to roll with a virtual rehearsal tomorrow, we are working out the details of using Zoom for weekly virtual rehearsals. Stand by for the details coming soon! Jerry has posted additional individual tracks on the website,(Thank you Jerry!!!) and a number of you have mentioned how much you are enjoying practicing with the support of those tracks. Keep it up!!!
Finally, I was blessed this morning to be able to listen to the following reflection. . . I highly recommend it.. . . https://memorialchurch.harvard.edu/blog/things-unseen
Peace and Blessings,
Mary