“Where did it go?”  Isn’t that the question we are all asking when we reflect back on the 12 months of 2023?  We are told that the older we get, the faster the year(s) go by.  If that is true, then I am old beyond my years because this year was gone in a flash.  I expect some of you feel the same way.

This year for the chaplaincy has been an eventful and monumental year.  For the first time in my awareness we surpassed 300 calls for service.  Placer County has grown, and so has the likelihood of ingesting fentanyl and other more powerful poisons in illicit drugs.  It has been a particularly hard year for families experiencing the death of teens and children.  I can only speculate about causes, they are multi-faceted.

In addition to the emergency call outs (ECOs) we were at schools for drug and alcohol awareness education, DUI checkpoints, community events alongside and encouraging law enforcement personnel, community memorial events, as well as at schools grieving the loss of a student.

Given what we do, it would be easy to focus on the tragedy of the year. But through this year we had over 300 opportunities for my intrepid volunteers to bring calm amidst chaos, peace within turmoil, and comfort when there was tremendous loss. Although it is sometimes said, “we do death”, we deal with the living, not the dead. It is those who remain to grieve, mourn, and survive who are the ones to benefit from our assistance. Although we cannot fix anything, we are often able to change the trajectory of the grieving process just a small bit.