Home Again, Home Again
Well, I’ve been home for a week and a half and am just now coming up for air. There’s the typical October whirlwind of birthdays, Thanksgiving, snow tires, and furnace filters. This year, we had the extra fun of trying to cram a bit more summer into October, too.
I have a few extra things to fit into “home” time now, too… doctor appointments, quarterly injections, and this time, a surprisingly fulfilling writing workshop.
I mean, my goal was to put together a fulfilling workshop for attendees –obviously. The pleasant surprise was how much I got out of it, as well. ‘Writing for Fun & Money’ registrants turned out to be a super creative, interesting group with great energy and rapport despite most being complete strangers to one another.
The venue and property at Rocklands Market was 🧑🍳😙🤌 (chef’s kiss), and I left after a full 8.5 hours of instructing feeling energized rather than depleted. That’s a good day in my books.
This time home, we celebrated Jack’s 18th birthday 🥹, hosted two big meals at our place, and enjoyed a long weekend away from work. But it hasn’t been all fun and games.
World and local news are heavy right now (I can’t say “more than usual” with any certainty, but it feels that way for many). Like so many others worldwide, Trevor and I awoke Saturday morning to breaking news reports of the Hamas invasion of/attack on Israel. Word quickly came in from work that the company is doing wellness checks on affected colleagues – the second time in less than two years, as we also have many teammates in Ukraine.
The RCMP is now investigating Doug Ford’s government. A major kidnapping investigation resulted in the arrests of eight people, one each from Owen Sound and Meaford.
And of course, there’s the persistent radio silence surrounding the August murder of our friend and local restauranteur, Sharif Rahman. Police aren’t talking. City council’s non-response has been a complete failure of leadership. Citizens, discouraged from asking questions, aren’t sure what to do or say. And so we wait, collectively holding our breath, as hope dwindles away.
How can you be an empathetic, participating citizen of this world and not be completely overwhelmed by all of this?
(There’s more…)