Well fellow inhabitants of planet earth, wherever you may be, it's been a rough week for many of us. The scenes that have unfolded in Boston since Monday's marathon, the terrible explosion in Texas, and now we are hearing of a devastating earthquake in China. These are troubling times, and it would be easy to hang our heads, throw our hands in the air and say "what's the point?" The point is, in spite of what might feel like overwhelming odds, we must not give up hope and most of all, we should not turn on our fellow man. It is times like these where we must learn to lean on each other more then ever. People are tribal by nature, we need the pack and we are the only ones who can heal each other. Senseless acts of violence should not been given precedence over the human triumph to push through and find the positive light. I fear, over the coming weeks, we will be barraged with endless images, stories and analysis of the Boston bombers in the media. It is more important to remember the survivors and the people who ran into the danger to help others in need. The reality is there were two bombers, but there were hundreds of people, civilians and first responders, who ran to the aid of others. That's the true story here. Around the world, terrible things happen every day, but there are more good people who come to help then there are those who would do harm. It is time our media and our governments focussed on that and put their energy into shining light on those stories and those people. If for every two people who are out to do harm, there are 100 people ready to do good, then maybe things aren't as hopeless as we are sometimes led to believe. Lets all try to keep that in mind and maybe we can be the change we want to see in the world. I think someone much more wise then I said that...
I really didn't intend to start off like that, but I think it was worth saying. Now in other, more ridiculous news, I have spent the last few hours battling what will hopefully be the last blast of winter (fyi, two days ago it was 22 degrees c and we had a tornado, today it's a blizzard) in order that I should go maple syrup shopping. I am blessed to live in a small region of the world where the sugar maple gives us glorious sap which can be boiled down into a delicious golden nectar of the gods. Each year small communities around the area I live in hold maple syrup festivals. An entire festival dedicated to the stuff, complete with pancake breakfasts and every kind of derivative of maple syrup you can think of. Today's expedition saw the purchase of two medium syrups (medium refers to the colour) one jar of maple sugar and, of course, the delicious maple candies, of which I have now had three and am vibrating from the maple sugar content. I am also quite sure it is the only thing that kept me warm whilst braving the 80km/h wind gusts which make this 0 degree day feel more like -10 (again this is in c). But it is a tradition and so, wind, rain, shine or blizzard, we will go to the maple syrup festivals to get our yearly dose of sugary goodness. Here's to hoping next spring will actually be, well, springlike...
Cheers with a big glass of syrup!
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