2011 almost here

Yep, the old year is almost done. This will be the 76th time I have seen a new year arrive, kind of mind boggling until you put it into perspective. I've probably turned at the Safeway traffic light some 300 times this past year, I'm sure I've filled the bird feeder over a hundred times, in the past ten years I've probably made and bottled around 1600 bottles of wine  and in my books and stories  I've written some 350,000 to 400,000 words over the past five years so I guess a measeley 76 New Years is no big deal.
However that gives thought to what has transpired during those years, but rather than list innoccuos and mundane things that no one would be interested in I'd just like to share a little bit of philosophical prose that I started years ago and have  added to over time.

Appreciation

I started the following paragraphs quite a few years ago when I did my “family history” writings.  I discovered them some time ago when I was looking for something else. Recently I was at a neighbor’s funeral service and there was something that either the minister said or that I thought of while I was sitting there that prompted me to extract these thoughts and perhaps say better what I was trying to express back then.  I am sure I will redo some of what I did before (not much) and perhaps try and say it in such a way that helps me appreciate the life I have had.

So here goes.

S

ometimes I like to just sit back and reflect on the things I have seen and the life I have had, I found this particularly useful any time that I think life gets tedious or I wished I had done more, or those few times when it would be easy to envy someone else’s life.

I have never seen all of the world, as other people have nor will I; I’m sure I have seen much more than some (big deal)!

I have seen the surface of Greenland, a virtual land of snow, with frozen fiords running like black highways of ice from the heart of the country to the surrounding seas.  I have seen Arabian royalty in the streets of Tangiers and a burro grinding olives into oil in the same way it has been done for two thousand years. I have stood with my feet on either side of the rivulet from which the mighty Fraser River springs forth. I have ridden a camel on the sands of Africa and I have looked at Spain from the ramparts of Gibraltar.  I have driven the streets of Athens and waded in the waters of the Adriatic and Ionian seas.  I have stood beneath the gate of the Apian Way and envisioned the passing of Caesar’s soldiers.  I have walked through the streets of London and read the inscriptions on the tombs in Westminster Abbey.  I have ridden on rides in Disneyland and swam in the icy spring fed waters of Bear Lake.  I have driven the Alaska Highway and the streets of Uruapan.  I have swum in the waters of the Caribbean, the waters of the Pacific at Baja and Pender Harbour and in the warm waters of Fiji.  I have dived in the waves on the shores of New Zealand and eaten the cockles and pipis that I caught. I have walked in the jungle in Quintana Roo, and in Cerro Blanco, fought fires in Oaxaca, in Chiapas, in Michoacan, in Ecuador, in the jungle like forests of western Florida and throughout British Columbia from the spruce forests along the Yukon border to the pine forests of the Kootenays.  I have hitchhiked from Winnipeg to Vancouver and flown in jet aircraft at 40,000 feet over the North Pole.  I have coached my kids in hockey and trained fire fighters across the breadth of British Columbia from Fort Ware to Alert Bay and In Mexico from Nayarit to Cancun.  I have cross-country skied in the fog at Salmon Arm and on a do - it - yourself trail at Nelson and snow-shoed at 40 below on Tezzeron Lake.  I have seen the northern lights touch the ground in Fort Nelson, the sun set behind Mt. Popacatapetl and the stars by their brightness dulling the glow of passing satellites at Salmon Beach.  I have seen an Orca pass beneath our boat, so close it could have been touched with an oar and I have seen Caribou on the shores of a glacial lake.  With family I have witnessed the “flower dance” of humpback whales in Barclay Sound.

My wife and I have driven across the breadth of Canada from ocean to ocean and across the United States from the Caribbean to the waters of Georgia Strait.

We have been tourists in Morocco, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, Singapore and Japan. We have cruised through the Panama Canal, the western Caribbean and our northern waters to Alaska. Together we have worked as volunteers in Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur and Victoria. We have tramped graveyards and searched records in questing for our roots across Canada, the United States and New Zealand.

I enjoyed a thirty-five year career starting in a rustic wooden fire tower and ending in a so-called “ivory tower” then had an additional ten years doing the kind of work I loved best.

I have had all these but most importantly I have seen my children grow into adults, have their own children and have watched those children start their life’s journeys.

And what else have I experienced? Let’s see!

I have loved and been loved; I love and am loved; I have enjoyed the thrills and the trials of fatherhood and experienced some of the despairs that are part of the package.  I have made, found and lost friends and have come to realize that those things we call ‘lost’ are never lost, they are just in another place and with the power of will can be found and embraced once more.  I have learned that even in the darkest hours there are moments of sunshine and joy and I understand it is irresponsible not to recall those good moments and relive them from time to time.

To all who may read this please understand that it is important to know that we all have a ‘zillion’ good memories and anytime that you may feel that the world is a drag, sit down and make a list and find out how lucky you really are!

John Little

1994, 2002, 2008, 2010