Winter keeps trucking along and the news is still filled with loads of bad news. Time to offset what I can with a little reflection here on three good things: one in my life, one good thing out in the world and one good thing you can do. Here goes:
In my life:
Today held a bunch of simple good things in my life that added together made today nice. It started with actually remembering to bundle up today. It has been hovering around -16 all day and the wind was strong making it feel like as low as -25. But with layers only my face got a little cold. That was excellent.
Work was work – most of which I can’t talk about because confidentiality. But I can say that I did enjoy the unlimited espresso – especially since I decided that when it’s cold, dark and depressing I don’t need to worry quite so much about moderation in my consumption! Lunch was low key but my client brought in a ton of delicious homemade cookies she had made – all with no added sugar but with things like dates, figs, dried fruit and nuts and they were so delicious.
Then when I got home Sage left almost immediately but Daegan and I had time for him to teach me a new card game he’d learned, Durak. It reminds us both a bit of a combination of Seep and Ghooost which are two family favourites. It was a blast and I’m ready to play again but he had to leave right away for a late shift. So then I got on my bike.
It was another group ride and while this group was much less talkative we were all pretty well matched so it was just outside my comfort zone making me have to push myself that little bit harder. Also with nobody home and it being the dark of winter, I could turn off all the lights, put some loud music in my headphones and sync up the lights to the music.
It’s the little things, eh?
Good in the World:
I saw a video about this a while ago and it’s a pretty cool cascade of effects from human intervention which can often do more harm than good. In this case, in China, they placed a bunch of solar panels in a desert. With the added shade, grass was able to grow under them because the ground didn’t get as hot and held more moisture when shaded by the panels. Then with the plants growing so much, grazing animals could come in, eat the plants and fertilize the land. All while generating clean energy. Not bad! More here.
Good you can do:
A habit I noticed in Canada that I hadn’t seen anywhere I’d lived before was that if someone saw a dropped piece of clothing – glove, scarf, toque, they’d hang it somewhere conspicuous so that its owner could see it when they passed again and claim it.
There’s an out of the way subway entrance I often use to get to work and cars are always dropping people off there and people often lose gloves. A while back I found a single glove and I placed it on one of the bike posts Then soon after I found another one. I put that one on another post. These have never been claimed and now seem to be an advertisement for “Put lost things here” because later I did find an actual pair of gloves and put them on another post. They were there for two days and either the person who dropped them picked them up or someone who really needed them did. Either way I am happy. Last night I saw that someone left a pair of earmuffs hanging from one of the glove posts. This morning they were gone. I have a wool hat that doesn’t fit me and I’m going to drop it by there next time I go.
In places where it gets cold people always need warm clothes. Socks, hats, gloves, long underwear (and actual underwear). Check with your local homeless shelters, drop in centres or churches as most take donations. If you see a cold snap is coming pick up a few and bring them by. When I volunteered downtown at the breakfast drop-in, people always asked for warm clothes when it was cold and we were always grateful when people would bring them by.
Also when it’s cold, something you can give that has double value is a gift card for a fast food restaurant or coffee shop. Generally a person can’t just walk into a Tim Hortons and sit in a corner to warm up. But if they have a gift card, not only can they get something to eat and/or a hot drink to warm up with, they now are customers and are entitled to go sit down and warm up.
Hope you are warm, safe and cozy wherever you are.
I love reading your posts. Our temperature scale is around -9c and it’s quite dry. The cookies you described must be delicious.
A week or two ago, I learned about a borad game called Patchwork, the Nordic edition. We have various social activity groups in my office and one of them is a board game group. Where colleagues meet after working hours and play for a couple of hours. We have a quite big common area with nice seating arrangement.
Thanks!
I think we’ve played patchwork before. It looks really familiar. I remember its being pretty fun. It’s really cool that you have social activity groups at work. We generally don’t connect outside of work at all. For a while a few of us followed each other on Instagram but now that I’m no longer there I’m no longer connected to that.