News
What love looks like here by James Sleigh
The article explores what love looks like in everyday life at Camphill Village, through the small acts of kindness, patience and support shared between residents and staff. It shows how these simple moments of care create the warm sense of community that makes Camphill special.
February is touted as the month of love, with Valentine’s Day falling in the middle of it. February’s love has traditionally been sensationalised by the media, using it as a vehicle to sell merchandise and fill seats in restaurants. This month, we take an internal look at what love looks like here, at Camphill Village.
Love is displayed in simple moments of contact and support, when people go beyond their call of duty, or are drawn to support in a random act of kindness:
When our nurse takes some extra moments to listen to someone, knowing it is not the ailment that is hurting, but the need for connection. When our social worker hears a story, and smiles, with genuine care, knowing that it is not necessary to ask if the story is true, or takes a staff member out for coffee, when she senses they need a shoulder. When the OT writes up notes, explains the process, knowing it may not be followed, but it would be lovely if it was. When our enterprise leaders show, again with a smile of encouragement, how something is to be done, knowing that tomorrow, they will need to repeat this. When our fundraiser takes a resident and her teddy for a ride around the village in her Mini, knowing that this will be her highlight for the month. When our house leaders listen, with warmth, love and encouragement, knowing that they will hear the same conversations tomorrow, but realising, that in answering again with kindness and patience, reassurance to anxiety is being offered.
It is in our tuck shop manager, ensuring that she has stocked the treats each person loves, knowing that for many, tuck shop is a highlight, and their treats are forms of love.
It is the words of encouragement, between residents, between staff, that keep this feeling alive.
All these small acts of love weave together into a fabric that can be felt and sensed when one enters the village. Love does not need to be expressed in grand and expensive gestures; it is observed in these simple acts of genuine thoughtfulness.
I have the privilege of witnessing and experiencing these acts of love daily. They ground me and bring me back from the stresses of managing all the moving parts of Camphill (especially in the heat of February) to what really matters.