June is quite a month, usually it is warming up outside, trees have blossomed and flowers have bloomed. There are graduation ceremonies, parties, weddings, the school year ends and we head straight into summer. It’s a good month, but it can be a very busy month too.
June is also the month that we hold our annual meeting at Bethany. This is a time when we reflect upon the accomplishments of the past year and we celebrate our team members for all of the work they have done and we recognize those who have served our residents for many years. It’s a good reminder that on occasion we should take a moment to pause and honor those who have done good work and who have served well. On many days the daily grind can become tiring and wear us out, so we all need to step back and remember the progress and focus upon the good things.
Before I came to work at Bethany, I used to work with a small close-knit group of people. “Everything matters” was our team mantra. Sometimes we would joke about this, but it resonated with me, because after all, I am a detail person. Those little details matters, such as how you answer the phone, how you prepare for a meeting, the way you dress for work, what you eat for breakfast…it all matters. Some say that the “devil is in the details”, and I think that is true. Everything we do matters, or at least it should.
It seems that in our modern-day culture many people choose to live like nothing really matters. Sometimes I hear things like, “if it doesn’t bother me or hurt anyone than what does it matter?” That sentiment has never felt right to me. It comes across as a narrow and selfish minded approach to living. It seems that this mindset is centered upon oneself, where if something doesn’t impact me right now than it doesn’t matter. Is that really true? Does the world really revolve around me? We might wish, but it doesn’t, and I don’t think that’s a good way to live. Unfortunately, it seems our culture continues to move ahead in a “me first” direction.
Community is one of our core values at Bethany. This should be obvious because we manage several communities. Residents who live at our sites live in a small community. And we are part of the larger communities of Haverhill, Groveland, and Boxford. Community is about communing in unity with other people, it’s about living together in peace and harmony (at least we hope), but it certainly isn’t all about just me. As we gear up for the summer season I hope that you might consider thinking about the “if it doesn’t bother me than it doesn’t matter” mindset, and ask yourself if that is really true? And don’t forget, that if everything matters, so do you.
“Everything you do matters, everything you don’t do also matters.”
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