Anywhere Else... October 11th 2023


        Seasons on the calendar never reflect what we are living here in this corner of my home and native land.  If you have been with me for the last few years,  well you have heard it all before.  But weather shapes so much of our lives here.   As much as I love my country I have never been much for the six months of winter we have every year.    I am a fall guy.  I love the colours that are brought on by changing leaves and the lower sun.   Autumn is sweater weather.  It is corduroy and tweed and denim.  It is pumpkin spice latte and muffins.  And it is usually two weeks long before those dusty nasty winds steal the natural colours and bring on the snows.  This year we got a little extra.  I know what we used to call it,  but I am not sure that is appropriate anymore.  It is a little gift of extra summer that helps with the harvest and makes our thanksgiving celebrations happen outside.  

        It appears to be the end of our short season today.  Six degrees, and rain all day today.  Anywhere else on this planet inhabited by fellow homo sapiens this would be a miserable winters day.  Hah.   But life here in my favourite country means you roll with the punches.  Like we have done so many times in history.  Canadians were the elite of the allied forces in the first world war.   I always thought it was because they were least affected by the horrid conditions they had trained for their whole lives.   Yup.  We are tough.   Tough and aware.  

         For all the crying I do.....we do about the weather,   well it's currently 19 degrees warmer with clear skies in Tel Aviv today.  It is seven degrees warmer and sunny in Kyiv.  How's that for putting weather into perspective?   And that's just the weather.  How do we compare our North American woes to what the average everyday peaceful citizens of Israel or Palestine go through Every. Single. Day.    Thanksgiving is a New World holiday.  I checked it out a few years back.  Thanksgiving was celebrated in Canada before it was in the U.S.A.  ( just a historical little sidebar there, but I digress.)  The point I was eventually getting to?  Well it doesn't take a whole lot of international observations to realize the new world and it's new world problems read more like a soap opera than they do news.  

       We get angry.  Angry about taxes.  Angry about what other provinces receive that we don't.  Angry about crime (most of which is material).   It may be time to be thankful that we have incomes to be taxed.  That the majority of our streets and neighbourhoods are safe enough to wander down.  That we not only have enough to eat,  we have some to spare for food banks and street kitchens.   That we have pensions plans and medicare.   That our children and our children's children are safe in their beds at night.  That we have the ability and often the will to improve things for those less fortunate.  

       This year,  we spent thanksgiving with most of our immediate family.  We were missing a son and two grandchildren who were wrapped up in celebrations with friends and family in other parts.  We had two new little ones to share our day.  We feasted, and toasted, and laughed while families just like us in other parts of the world huddled in cellars and prayed for their lives.   

We gave thanks for many many blessings and good fortune.   And although the holiday for giving thanks ended two days ago and the weather is damp and cold and far more seasonal,  I am thinking today that I should be giving thanks that my family is safe, warm, fed, employed, educated, and NOT  anywhere else.   

     

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