On Saturday morning I study.  Before I go to study I sometimes like to stop at Starbucks along the way for a coffee and to just sit alone with others while I read the Globe and Mail.  This morning after I had just settled comfortably into the leather chair to read, some stranger who I have seen before started to talk to me.  He said he had seen me in this Starbucks before, he talked about a backpack that he had seen on the street on his way to the coffee shop with its contents scattered all over the road, a bad movie he had recently seen, Starbuck’s great deal on refills, the weather and a good movie that he recommended.  He wondered if I lived around here and where I was going to study.   He wanted to talk …. I wanted to read the paper.  I found myself frustrated in my attempts to be alone to read in a busy room, and suspicious as to why anyone would talk to me anyway; but I just couldn’t ignore someone in favour of the bad news in the paper or because of my suspicions about men in general.  So I decided to read the paper later, and I sipped my coffee and mostly listened.  I even had to defend the paper when someone asked me if I was done with it.  A very eventful morning at Starbucks.

Yesterday we went for a lovely little hike with our pooch Kaldi, in the Whitemud Ravine. We’ve walked and biked Edmonton’s ravines for many years, but somehow we’ve gotten into a rut in the past couple of years, and just walk in our neighbourhood ravine, or along the streets.

We’ve decided to try a different approach in 2021, and expand our walking adventures. To start with we just drove ten minutes from our house to the Rainbow Valley Bridge and hiked south on the Whitemud Ravine trail. It is part of the Whitemud Ravine Nature Reserve. It never ceases to astound me how little I know of the city I have live in for more than forty years! Well, actually daily I am astounded by how little I know, period.

In any event, it is a very beautiful trail. I love the trees, and some of them huge with beautiful furrowed bark. Bright red berries still hang from the high bush cranberries. There are a lot of birds, we recognized some of them, and their calls, but I certainly have a lot more to learn there too. There were a few birders with big lensed cameras, moms and dads getting small children out and about in nature, and a handful of people just enjoying their stroll.

It is clear to me that I have joined the set of people who have wrinkly and saggy skin, get up several times in the night to go to the bathroom, repeat themselves occasionally, and lean a bit one way or the other when they walk. But that’s OK with me. There are other things that come with this set for me – like accepting others as they are, taking the time to admire beautiful babies and small creatures, and in general taking time – not rushing.

I’m sitting on our deck in Maui, enjoying a coffee and the view. I’m looking forward to laying in the sun, dipping in the ocean and reading on the beach. How fortunate I am in this life

For me Christmas is a time to celebrate Hope for Peace. When I told my son this he offered “Mom, peace can only be achieved internally, for the individual.” Hmmm, that’s a thought, I’ll have to mull that over in my mind for a while.

……..

It seems impossible that we would ever have Peace on Earth, in an international sense. It has never been so, and it isn’t exactly looking promising right now. We don’t even have peace within some families, neighbourhoods or communities. Certainly a lack of peace is wildly evident in cities and within country boarders.

Hmm indeed. Yes, I need to look at this differently, and work to find peace in my own little sphere.

My mother had a poem posted on her bedroom wall in Victoria for more than 30 years. She tried to live by it. Here it is for your pleasure this Christmas, in honor of Mom, who was always mindful of keeping peace.

Desiderata – Words for Life

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

— Max Ehrmann, 1927

It is indeed beautiful… the streets lined with towering deep green sentinels draped in sparkling snow, the crescent moon’s light burning through the mist of early morning clouds and the quiet of a city as yet unawakened.

And the people in the silent homes add their own beauty, copying nature’s artistic sense, with an array of light displays along the streets.