When the Going Gets Tough...

...Read! 

Life has been bit of a circus this week..more medical tests, new meds, the frantic rush to get errands and shopping done before the big storm hits and Christmas arrives in the middle of it!...And then, news of yet another death; the husband of another long-time friend and colleague from my TVO days has passed...What a year it has been...so many losses.

Then yesterday, the anticipation of fun times  - Christmas dinner hosted by a good friend with some other guests I have not seen in years - quashed! Covid stepped in and now there is one person recuperating in quarantine (the one preparing the feast) and two others isolating and testing as they were exposed!...Geez...Perhaps we will have better luck with New Year's...?

Anyway, there are always books... and I have been escaping into them this week. The one featured here is my current one, Peace by Chocolate, best read whilst eating chocolate! It is the uplifting and heart-warming story of a Syrian family, refugees who lost everything to unrest and war in their homeland and eventually made it to Canada, sponsored by the generous residents of Antigonish, a small community in Nova Scotia. Because of the media coverage, I was aware of the basic story of how, with the support of that community, they re-started their chocolate business there, becoming the town's most important private employer, contributing to their community and generously helping other families in need... but I had not been aware of the book. It is a story that was worth reading...and just shows how much we gain from opening our doors and welcoming people who need help. 

And then..I watched Volodymyr Zelensky address the USA congress and I was reminded of all the Ukrainian refugees who have made it to our shores and I hope they are being made to feel as welcome as that Syrian family was...I do know of one example where that has happened... The kind people of Grand Manan, an island in the Bay of Fundy, have sponsored some Ukrainian families, and as different as that island must be from their home country, those families seem to be adapting and fitting in, are working and already contributing to that community...   

It is humbling to see the courage of these people who are forced to leave their homes, relatives and country and start again..and shocking to think what horrors they have been through....but they are tough folks and when the going got tough, they did what they had to do....They came here and we are the better for it...