May certainly started with a bang, first the election, then the capture and death of Bin Laden followed by Mother’s Day and assorted floods in Manitoba and the U.S.
I am in Aurora, a suburb of Toronto, staying with my son, Chris, his wife, Deb, and our friend, Kathy, and am overdosing on all the news coverage. The morning newspaper comes daily and I swear weighs five pounds on Saturday, taking one entire day to read until the next edition comes on Sunday morning.
This city just grows and grows; one subdivision after another, almost to Barrie, a city 90 miles away and God knows how long a commute into downtown Toronto that is.
According to the 2006 census, 5.6 million people live in the Greater Toronto area and it is still growing in leaps and bounds.
Aurora is located 30 miles north of downtown Toronto on the Oak Ridges Moraine and is bisected by Yonge Street, one of the oldest and longest streets in Ontario. It has a population estimated at 55,000 with an average income of $155,463 compared to the national average of $87,755. It feels like a town with its old fashioned downtown area and market.
The big news this week is that a black bear was sighted in a wood lot not far away from the house, a very rare occasion, and the local parks people where trying to capture it and relocate it. How this bear could have ended up in such a populated area is astounding. There are lots of parks, wood lots, farmer’s fields stretching north to a semi-wilderness area but it is mostly all well populated, so how the bear arrived on the doorstep of Toronto is the question of the day.
It seems incongruous that there is so much wild life in such a suburban setting, but my son’s house is bordered at the rear by a well-treed park and yesterday when Deb was walking the dog in the early morning light a small red fox ran across her path.
There are many birds at the feeder and also many squirrels all vying for a free handout.
Last week one of those birds, a starling, attempted to build a nest in the fan outlet of the kitchen stove which caused much havoc as we could hear all sorts of chirping and commotion in the vent above the stove as we drank our coffee.
My son managed to clear it out when the bird flew out and quickly put a cover over the old flap that had stuck open.
Nature and the city seem to accommodate one another as needed and everyone survives.
Tomorrow, I leave to visit my sister in Gravenhurst, in the Muskoka area, a well-known cottage area, and then we travel to Florida for 10 days of fun in the sun to celebrate spring.
Speaking of spring, I also think of it as a time of renewal and a good time to evaluate life and where we want to be in it.
An article in The Globe and Mail recently helped when it talked about assessing life and setting new goals. For instance, it suggests, asking yourself these questions: 1) Am I happy? 2) Am I fulfilled? 3) Am I doing what I want to do? 4) Am I having fun?
Pay attention to dreams that follow your true priorities. Make time to do the things that really matter to you. It’s about letting go and clearing your mind to start fresh and dream bigger. And stop worrying, it makes it impossible to move into a bright future.
