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This episode of Strung Out centers on our spiritual wellbeing during the pandemic.  To help us we welcome Drew Jacques.  Drew is a Presbyterian Minister, as well as  spending years counseling in mental health as well as child services in the province of Ontario, Canada.  Drew became pastor of St. David's of Campbellsville, Ontario, right before the outbreak of the pandemic.  Pastor Drew uses all of his previous life experiences in healthcare as well as the ministry to help us discover what meaning and purpose there is to the pandemic, as well as offering advice on finding inner peace and dialogue with the Universe.   Pastor Drew will be a regular contributor to Strung Out.   His personal story is below as well as in the transcript of the show.

 Drew Jacques: A personal Reflection I have every reason to believe that where I am today was planned before I was born in September 1958. (Yes, I’m a Libra!) Within several weeks of my birth I was baptized by Rev. C.K. Nicol. What is important to know about him is he was the Chaplain for the 48th Highlanders and hit Juno Beach on D. Day. I was baptized by a Warrior. I always went to church. But then, those where the days when churchgoing was pretty much expected of everybody. Mine was the first generation to really walk away. That is not a condemnation, simply the truth. I remained, for the most part in. By the age of 2 I knew how to work a record player and had “The Kingston Trio - Close up”, “Camelot” and “My Fair Lady” albums completely memorized. Some foundational theology in these. At the age of four I participated in a Fashion show a ladies group put on in the church. I was modelling shorts. I don’t know if I was traumatized by it, but to this day I don’t wear shorts. The story goes I walked down the catwalk and back. When I get back to the change room I said of the experience; “I didn’t know what to say”. I hadn’t quite pieced together the path to being a preacher, but I suspect there was some inkling of the direction I was headed. Around about the same time I heard the Mother Superior sing “Climb Every Mountain” in the sound of music. It has stuck with me. Roughly then my dad bought me a crystal radio. It began a life long love of radio. Through the radio the music the songs of the sixties and early seventies became foundational to my theology. If you look closely at the Billboard Top 100 from 1968 to 1972 you will understand the impact and influence on an absorbing mind. Those four years touch all of our spirits, who were around of course. The other supreme influence was spending every summer from the last day of school to the first day in the fall at a cottage for the better part of 12 years. On a crystal clear lake in a forest of old growth Hemlock, with a canoe, a tent the freedom to explore and experience a wonderful corner of creation. In 1972 my parents moved from Oakville, essentially a quintessential small English “seaside” town on the shore of Lake Ontario to the farthest reaches of the suburbs in Toronto which I quickly began to refer to as “Scarberia”. (Revisit the opening of the Blues Brothers). It was my first sojourn into a spiritual wilderness, the first great “uprooting”. But the one constant that remained, through all the years, was music and it's transcendent power to sooth and strengthen. A quick side note. I remember the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I remember all the kids in the neighbourhood growing our bangs long like the Fab 4. I remember us being asked by a delivery driver; “What are you, a bunch of hippies?” I have a very clear memory of Linus saying; “Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward all”. I wanted to learn to play guitar. My parents world view demanded one take piano and learn theory before getting a guitar. Thus began eight years of misery: Piano Lessons It wasn’t until I left

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