NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

“WHAT?  . . . . . BACK UP? . . . . ME? . . . . . YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!!”    This has been my response for 50+ years during which time I have done my very best to avoid the issue. A couple of years ago, a friend, after observing one of my less-than-successful attempts, said to me “Lynn, use your mirrors . . .“ This advice was repeated periodically over the next months. Finally after some time I decided that if I trusted my friend’s advice, then perhaps I should try it. Actually trying it, though, took a little longer.  It worked – not perfectly, but at least enough that I was willing to try it again . . . and again . . . and again. While backing into the lane way hasn't happened yet, each time I follow that advice it becomes a little easier [and a lot less stressful] to back up. Reflecting on this phenomenon, made me realize that the main issue here wasn't the backing up as much as it was trust. I’m sure I had heard ...

It was raining outside my window as I wrote this. It was dull. It was damp. It was downright depressing out there. It spoiled my plans for a tea party in the garden. But wait a minute…the grasses, the trees, the plants were all soaking it up. It meant I  wouldn't  have to water the garden, refill the bird bath or wipe the dust off the lawn furniture. “The sun’ll come out tomorrow”, as the song from Annie says, and then everything will flourish and grow. Somehow it is harder to visualize the ‘sun’ coming out tomorrow when the ‘rain’ is coming into my life,  when I wake up in the morning and despite the sun shining outside everything looks gloomy... or depressing… or boring… or hopeless…or ?????.  Full of questions and doubts, I have to answer the questions "What is important to me? What makes me feel alive? What matters to me now? Am I going down the wrong road? Who decides it is the wrong road anyway?" So many, many questions ... so few 'real' answers. So ...

I grew up in the 40’s and 50’s, in a culture that KNEW that you didn’t wear white before the 24 th of May weekend or after Labour Day! Why this was so was never explained, nor did I ever question why. To this day, I still find it impossible to wear white outside those boundaries.  Yes, I have tried! Only to end up taking the offending garment off because it made me feel so uncomfortable.  Even when visiting the southern hemisphere during ‘their’ summer, I still could not bring myself to ‘wear white’ because although the weather was right, the names of the months weren’t. And YES, I realize this makes no sense, that neither the season, nor the temperature, matters! If this tradition, that is so obviously flawed, but really about something of little importance in today’s world, is so difficult for me to jettison, then why should I be surprised at how difficult it is to change outdated religious doctrines and creeds. These creeds and doctrines, many of which are 1500 year...

I noticed this slogan “i n sod we trust” on a truck from a nearby sod farm recently as I was driving through our town.   It made me think . . .Yes, in this part of Canada, with our short growing season, we do trust in sod to have those perfect green lawns, THIS year.   These lawns do not appear magically however.    We feel they are worth the investment of our hard-earned dollars, followed by hours of watering as we encourage them to grow in the normally hot dry summers . . . to say nothing of using more of our hard-earned cash, to pay the ensuing water bill. Oh, yes, and we erect little fences around them to protect the sod from being trampled on by feet, both big and little. So, yes, we trust ‘in sod’ to give the lawns we desire, but it is not without the investment of both our time and money. This slogan, of course, is a play on the slogan we are all familiar with from USA coins: “In God we trust” – a slogan which seems like a mantra to many today....