Photo Credit: Ashraf Ogram

With our return to the prairies, every day is a discovery. Today is raining and I find myself grateful for the slight moisture offered to my newly planted peonies, irises, roses, lilac, and lilies of the valley, not to mention the solo sunflower which volunteered in the middle of the garden and which is in full bloom. There are also some tomatoes and zucchinis from the previous owners, along with a few buckets of fall potatoes. Bernie has purchased chickens so we are wakened in the mornings by the proverbial cockadoodledoo, and hear it throughout the day. I have been teaching now for about three weeks and am very much enjoying the school and the students. The city is different. Give me the countryside any day.

However, there is a great shadow, and that is the disappearance of the son of dear friends here in the province. In July, this young man drove off in his car and because he is 19 and because he was under some stress, it was essentially treated as an adult leaving home and not as a runaway situation, understandably. However, last week his abandoned car was found on a road near his home and the evidence in the area suggests that something has gone very wrong. He was unable to walk; he could drive but not walk, and it may be that he was stranded and simply unable to return home. Search parties are now out looking, under the auspices of the RCMP, and we have been asked to offer prayers on behalf of this young man and his extended family. Might I ask anyone who reads this blog to also offer prayers for this beleaguered family? While his life expectancy may not have been great (he had HIV from birth), he had, and has, a strong, loving, and supportive family and community. It has been a very rough summer for his parents; his father's mother passed away, suddenly, at age 90, just after his own disappearance. I find that I think, these days, of Rabbi Harold Kushner's helpful book, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. These are good people, and they are enduring great sadness. Let us send all the prayers and loving energy we can to the Perreault family at this time.

We are anticipating having my parents come and spend a couple of months with us. They hope to arrive early in October, and since I am home most afternoons, we'll no doubt have lots of time together. Dad will no doubt help me with the garden and Bernie with chickens and perhaps rabbits. They are both enthusiastic about such projects. Mom likes to watch tv, close up because of her eyes, and with technology these days we are able to offer her many options. I tend to buy a lot of the films I have in the house. The next one I'll be using, actually, is for school: I intend to show excerpts from the fascinating film, The Rabbit-Proof Fence, to my grade seven social studies students, as part of our study of Australia, and as introduction to colonialism. I am not sure Mom has seen the film so perhaps she'll enjoy it.

I imagine that Dad and I will also read her my new book. It is now available (at Amazon, at least) and my own copies are apparently en route (so I should be able to have a look at it soon). That would be Mind, Heart, & Spirit: Educators Speak. It's full of amazing stories from educators around the world and if you know a teacher, may I suggest that it would be a truly appropriate gift for October 5, World Teacher Day? It's not expensive and I think the book is heart-warming and perhaps even thought-provoking.

That's all for now from this rural Saskatchewan rainy day, where it is not yet cool enough to light the first fire of the season in my stone fireplace...but it will be soon. In the meantime, I have bulbs to plant.