Friday, January 1, 2010

Today was a perfect Ottawa Valley day. There was little wind, the temperature was a balmy minus three and there was a continuous very light dusting of snow as if some heavenly baker was finishing off the gingerbread men. There was an amazing silence; no snowmobiles, no cars and no snowplows. The only sound came from the river where the changing ice went from grinding to silence to whale songs all in a matter of minutes.
But Nature is a harsh mistress. The front yard was festooned with little clumps of feathers. Very likely the hawk had , in a fell swoop, snagged one of the chickadees. As McDuff said:

All my pretty ones?
Did you say all?
O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?

Our hell-kite was not so all devouring. The rest of the chickadee flock was at the feeders. Our feeders do indeed feed a wide swath of animals, including the red squirrels.

Last night was New Year’s Eve and we attended a pot luck with some friends between seven and nine. That was good fun and the only “problem” was trying to decide what to do with the excess food. It is so wonderful to have that as a concern. What most of the world’s population would not do to have that to worry about. I had one of those coincidence / god incidence moments where I was suddenly given vision of something I was only meant to see that night. If there are readers out there reading this I know that sounds like gibberish but it makes sense to me and I need it to be part of the record.

We then went to a party at one of our neighbours. It was a small gathering and again there was a coincidence / god incidence moment where my wife figured out that one our neighbours had a sister who my wife had worked with years ago. Clearly a night of eyes opened. We stayed there to welcome in 2010 and then went home, off to bed and then to wake up to the day.

2010 – a New Year. In 25 days I will have had (subject to the possibility of change) my surgery. I am looking forward to it and just hope that I have the strength and soul and intelligence to fulfill my obligation to my healers, my caregivers and myself. I really have been thinking about the parable where the landowner goes on an extended journey and gives a gold coin to each of three servants. I am sure all know the story: Servant I turns his Gold Coin into something like 10 Gold Coins, Servant II turns his allotment into 5 coins, but the third guy just buries his coin. He doesn’t hear the end of that!

So, here is my single New Year’s resolution. To NOT bury this great gift I am getting but to do all that I can with it. Here’s looking at my self ……

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