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Steps for Life: Why we walk
There are so many demands on your time: kids, parents, work, hobbies, community, fitness, chores, travel – the list is almost infinite. After the absolutely necessary items are checked off, How do you choose what to do with the hours that are left? It’s a bit like...
The Face of Grief and the Face of Depression
When someone you love is suddenly torn from you or when you lose something you care about, you will experience a myriad of difficult emotions and it is natural to feel that the pain and sadness will never subside. There is no right way to grieve and mourn but there...
Laura Synyard: Helping families find support
In 2006 Laura Synyard and her husband Keith moved their young family from Alberta to her husband’s home province of Newfoundland. Four short years later Laura found herself presented with the opportunity to volunteer with the inaugural St. John’s Steps for Life walk.
Now – about those new year’s resolutions…
5 steps for keeping your goals Many resolutions are resolved, promises promised and goals set during the bright early hours of New Year’s morning. And the vast majority of those resolutions won’t last the week. But if you’re serious about changing a habit or...
Make a healing resolution for the new year
Sure, we’ve all heard the knock on resolutions – the majority are dropped after a few days or weeks. But who can resist a shiny new calendar and a chance to plan for a better year? Threads of Life staff got together to help you with a list of potential resolutions to...
5 ways you can support Threads of Life families
Steps for Life is the major fundraiser for Threads of Life – all the money raised through the walk is used to provide services to families coping with the effects of workplace fatalities, life-altering injuries or occupational disease. Want to chip in? Here’s how:...
Coping with reminders of Christmas past
The song “The Christmas Shoes” recounts the events experienced by a narrator completing the last of his gift-shopping on Christmas Eve.In the checkout aisle, a young boy is ahead of him, wishing to purchase a pair of expensive shoes for his terminally ill mother,...
Walking a path: The twists and turns of life
We have all heard that “no one can understand or appreciate the path that others walk, unless we have walked it ourselves”. I can see the sense to that statement, but not sure that I totally agree. I witness compassion daily in our Threads of Life family members. I...
Responding to well-meaning (but frustrating) people
Briefly, a bystander’s lack of direct involvement in a tragedy event has them say things over the next weeks and months that we find irritating and frustrating: phrases and discouraging comments like “aren’t you back to normal yet?” or “you need to get over it.” Their lack of experience with tragic events lets them say unhelpful words.
Promoting understanding between those who “get it” and those who don’t
When a workplace tragedy occurs a whole cast of characters appear. In our context the first will be the harmed loved one; then immediate family members; next, members of the extended family; followed by coworkers, medical services, investigators of various kinds, friends, neighbours and acquaintances.
Diana Devine: Honouring her dad through volunteer work
“I remember a speaking engagement I did right before Christmas for a local construction company,” Diana Devine says.“They were a group of workers gathered in their lunchroom that had come to hear my story. It made me think of my Dad and how much he enjoyed the...
Memories endure: A 13-year reminder
On a Saturday afternoon in mid-September I attended a service of worship in memory and celebration of the life of a Facebook friend. She was more than that. She was a part of my life by our both belonging to the same congregational community. An accomplished musician...
