Making a Difference

​“I do spiritual care for the elderly and the dying, and when I sit with someone who is 90 and who doesn’t know who I am and can’t communicate, but has a sense that I’m in the room with them, I look at this whole life and think, wow, this person was 46, this person was 12, this person was 60, this person has experienced countless things – children, families, careers, work, love, loss, illness. Now they’re lying here in a bed. They’re moving toward dying. What can I do? Can I do anything? Is there anything to be done? And I somehow shift that into being with that one person in that moment. Even if it’s 15 minutes, simply being a witness to that life is making a difference in a life. And I feel that about the Green Wood dinner too. I’ve been sitting in the same place since I started coming. The people I’ve been sitting with, we have a bond now, and I think that’s making a difference in a life, building enough trust with a person that I trust them and they trust me and we can be ourselves together. When we connect, we are making a difference in each other’s lives. Maybe it’s a small difference, yet we don’t know what it’s going to bring. Our cultural broken bones can be healed when we eat together, talk together, get to know each other, release the fear of the other, of the different and somehow realize we’re actually not different. This is where we need to carry the vision of humanity forward if the human species wants to survive.”
—Celia McBride 
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Making a Difference is a new series of personal stories by members of the Green Wood Coalition community. By building community through weekly Community Dinners, Green Wood makes a difference in a life. 
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You can make a difference by donating to Support Green Wood’s work in Northumberland County. Click here: Donate to Green Wood
📷: Jeannette Breward