back on the home place

We arrived home from our almost-month-long trip just prior to last weekend. In the end, we both felt the need to get into our own home and our beds. The last part of our trip, our Val Marie time, was somewhat dampened by the less-than-stellar state of our B&B. The owner has a great facility for making the ordinary sound wonderful. We fell for the pitch, and found the digs cramped and somewhat unsatisfactory for $100 a day.

Driving home, I was impressed with the way in which the simple act of sitting in a car all day quite tiring. A symptom of advancing age, I imagine. I was glad to get my feet on terra firma again. It took us more than a day to unpack, wash clothes and get re-oriented to home. We managed to attend worship together on Beatrix' last Sunday of vacation.

The rush of current events caught up to us last evening. Our political party's nomination meeting for our constituency was held Monday evening. Two candidates, one a senior and very experienced male, the other a young Aboriginal woman. The man one. He'll be a good candidate, if a bit of a maverick. He may give our very conservative Conservative MP a good run for his money. It will be his last campaign, as he is 65, and a representative of a long past of service. The young woman, unseasoned, but bright, is the face of the next election, and our party's future. But as the Cons say of Justin Trudeau, "she just isn't ready."

My enthusiasm for the party's national aspirations are not matched by those for my own riding. I think our candidate is too much of a lone wolf, too out-of-step with party strategy, to make a huge impact. There is no doubt that he is a good speaker, and very knowledgeable. He tends to do too much on his own, without calling on the resources of others, and he just can't be everyplace at once.

I'm in the midst of a very slow time for me, a chance to write a bit and ponder life. Likely a very good thing to do at this juncture of my life. I have decisions to make about what I will spend my energy on this winter, and what, if anything, I will write. My time of writing for the local paper is about at an end, and I see no other valid avenues for me right now. So I ponder and watch, and wait. And listen.

I'm finding that my attention span for reading is shrinking, as is my enthusiasm. That's something new for me, and I hope it changes. It may, on the other hand, be one of those things about which I must the 'courage to accept the thing I cannot change.'

As my ex-mother in law was wont to say, "more anon."

On the Road again.....

The last time I posted, we had just begun our vacation. Today, we are four days from returning home after almost a month on the road! We visited three families of children with their children - our grandchildren - and an ailing friend in another city. We have traversed most of three Canadian provinces, and experienced a couple of rain and wind storms.

Among the highlights of our travels was a memorable dinner with daughter Janet and her two sons, with the fiancee of of one of the boys. We had a lovely weekend with Kathryn and company, watching our grandson Angus (15) pass from boy to adolescent, and report for his very first ay of work. A long and deep conversation with Keith and Kathy was greatly appreciated by myself and by Beatrix, helping me to connect again with my son.

Visiting Gordon and Hazel in Regina was a good thing to do. Gordon is ailing and his spouse, who recently broke her hip, is frail. Her rrazor  ssharp wit remains intact, however, and provided lots of humor during our time together.

At this point, we are back in Val Marie and on the edge of the Grasslands National Park, where we did our first hike today. I am frustrated by my diminished capacity for uphill walking, and hence, the lessening of my chances of doing all the walking I'd like to do. This time, an added complication is Beatrix' hip bursitis, which slows he down, and gives her considerable pain to boot.(Bad pun....)

We shared a musical concert in the hotel bar last evening with a large crowd of locals. The music wasn't my favourite style, butt the cause was the support of the Prairie Winds coffee shop, bookstore  and museumm  and bookstoore..The iPaad is  accting up again,, o I'll  stop..

A full day!

Exciting days in Medicine Hat. Yesterday a visit to an exquisite rural museum at Etzicom, complete with a badly deteriorating windmill museum, plus a stop at Red Rock Coulee, complete with - you guessed it - red rocks formed at the bottom of the ocean that once covered this part of the country. Climbing the hill in a screaming wind proved to be a monumental feat, accomplished with some difficulty.

Today, we visited St. Patrick's Church, a beautiful neo-Gothic building across the river in the Hat. While there, admiring gorgeous stained glass, we had a terrific visit with the janitor, an Iraqi immigrant, who shared some of his story with us, after letting us in graciously through a locked door. Later in the day, after a supposedly Tapas lunch - no Tapas were in evidence - we had an equally fascinating visit withe the owner/operator of the Millagro Food shop. This retired police officer from Saskatchewan is a purist. He makes Cuban coffee fresh for each cup, bakes his own bread and buns, and serves world famous Kosher hot dogs, straight from New York! His cafe, about 10 feet square, is a choice delight. Smoothest and sharpest coffee I've had in months. We plan to return for a proper lunch in the next day or two, to sample the real goods!

He was a trove of great thoughts about places to eat in Medicine Hat, plus a purist chef';s view of the food industry. A visit to the Esplanade art exhibits, plus a display of old motorcycles, including a racer build around a jet engine! Imagine straddling an engine with after burners and 2000 lbs of thrust! We are at home now before venturing out to another eating adventure, likely Indian or Vietnamese food. This town has an amazing collection of ethnic eateries! Who knew?      

Vacation!

At last, on vacation! Beatrix and I enjoyed an-almost five day workshop/retreat at the Juniper Hotel in Banff this past week. It was a spiritual under with the leadership of John Philip Newell, former head of the Iona Community in Scotland. It was entitled Rebirthing God. I found it a refreshing alternative to the Progressive Christianity movement as a way of moving forward in theological thinking as well as spiritual practice in the 21st century.

Newell blends very progressive, reflection based theology with prayer times and Meditation styles Of
 sorts to give participants a new angle on understanding God language, as well as grasping the notion of "God" in and under everything in the created order - a new way of expanding Paul Tillich's "God as ground-of-Being" approach. Newell has written a number of books on Celtic Spirituality, a refreshing change from traditional catholic-based spiritual practice, as well as from narrow and juvenile concepts of God as a Being up above controlling everything below.

The setting was delightful, on the edge of bustling (at least!) Banff, in the heart of the Rockies, with companiable people. Something I noticed in comparing the "workshop attendance crowd," is that thge particpants have beckome more upscale financially and more open to sptiritual/r,eligioud practice than in the old days

But now we are in Medicine Hat, on vacation! Today is - literally - the first day of t.ghe rest of this life! After breakfast, we are off to the Tourist Centre, for pointers on what to do first, second and so on. Talk to you more later! दिस्कोवेरेड ठाट