By Barbara Sutherland

Residents and employee care partners at Sagebrush are focused right now on wisdom and happiness. While life within their community is still impacted by the precautions around COVID-19, they’re looking on the bright side. And they’re generously sharing their thoughts on how to live a happy life.

We Could All Use a Little Advice

“I came up with the idea from seeing everyone posting ‘back to school’ photos of seniors giving kids advice for school,” Recreation Therapist, Haley Wilde says, “but I decided to take a different spin on it. I think we could all use a little advice from someone who has already lived through many experiences and overcome some battles of their own.”

How to Live a Happy Life

For Seniors Week, Haley made a community activity out of collecting little bits of wisdom from residents and care partners. “I went around and asked most of the residents to give me their advice on how to live a happy life,” she says. “To the employee care partners, I asked ‘What have seniors taught you?’”

“Some residents knew what they wanted to say right away, but for others, I had let them think about it for a while and come back after a few hours. We used a small whiteboard to write the messages on and take a photo.” As she went along she showed residents their photos. The whole process took Haley just a couple of days, “which is a lot faster than I expected it to take!”

Unique Approach to Achieving Happiness

“I learned that everyone has a different perspective or approach when it comes to achieving happiness,” Haley adds. “There’s no one answer that’s right or wrong, it’s all individual and specific for the person, which I think says a lot about how unique everyone is.”