By Gordon Kubanek, CACOR Board of Directors.
Reflections on the power of ‘AND’
I wish you a JOY filled 2019!
This particular joy of which I speak is an alchemical combination of ‘going with the flow’ and being prepared for ‘surprises’.
It means that today is a very special day – as all we ever have is today; yesterdays are gone and tomorrow has not yet arrived. So, live today like it really matters – because it does as today is all we ever have. Of course you already you know this, but doing this is so much more difficult. Right now, for example, Mum is making a bread pudding, Oma is watching the news, Leah just came back from walking and playing with her new puppy and I am writing you after sharing pictures of our Poustinia with Annette Brinkman who would like to have a mini retreat in it during the next month: right now, here, life is rich and full – as it should be.
Simultaneously I am preparing for tomorrow, because I know that life has surprises – the big surprise was getting sick with heart failure. That ‘surprise’ made real to me the reality that you must be ready for the unexpected – this, of course, being a paradox, as you how can you prepare for what you don’t even know is coming at you? Clearly, you cannot. However, you can prepare for the normal ‘surprises’ like freezing rain by having sand and salt bags ready BEFORE the bad weather [right now there is no more salt/sand for sale at the Home Hardware stores in Smith Falls or Manotick – I checked yesterday], by having our electric car fully charged BEFORE we go for our next drive, by having a second load of wood pellets ordered 2 weeks ago for delivery next week BEFORE we run out.
I think you get the idea. Being prepared is not being negative, it is, for me, positive – as it shows that there is something I can do and that I am not helpless. In this vein I believe that you should prepare yourselves for a life very different from what Mum & I have experienced. Just as Omi’s life was very different from ours, so will yours differ because the world is in constant flux – as it should be. Change is not bad, it is good, IF you are adaptable and psychologically ready for change – especially the ‘surprises’. So here is the final word on 2019 courtesy of a squirrel I met while walking the dogs in Lambert’s forest:
” Stop! Live in the moment AND store those nuts for the cold winter that is coming
and then you can be content even during the worst blizzard.”
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