Jean jiving
Music is a powerful experience and has many emotional effects. At Prairie Valley Lodge we use music as a positive therapy, for all of us, staff and residents alike. Music encourages happy thoughts, rekindles memories, it can shift negative thinking patterns, and promotes positive social interactions between all of us, young and old. Every day we sing along to our favourite tunes as we go about our daily tasks. Often we want to dance and sometimes...well sometimes it even makes us cry.
We have frequent visits from musicians at the Lodge. A couple of weeks ago Aaron Loewen came by and his gypsy jazz had Jean smiling and jiving. It reminded her of when she was a child in the 1920's and her parents would move the furniture in the living room out of the way and dance the Charleston...she loved it!
Earlier this week the Youth Choir from the West Kelowna Evangelical Baptist church came to sing for us...all 18 of them! One of our residents – Mary was smiling through her tears... she recounted stories of her childhood when her parents had a piano and they took turns teaching her how to play. We spoke afterwards about "happy tears “… how it is our feelings that make us human. A life well lived is full of emotion. So let's keep laughing, singing, dancing and crying through our tears.
Our thanks to the Youth Choir for their inspirational voices. We look forward to welcoming them back at Easter! In the meantime… here's to the music that touches us and here's to all the memories!
Written by Christina Hughes