Thoughts...

It was a little over a year ago that my former city of Regina lost one of its own to a battle with cancer. I had met her through my work as a Chartered Accountant. I didn't know her well, but I remember laughing with her over our challenging to pronouce names, and I remember how she called me when I passed my CA exam to congratulate me. I remember reading that in her obit it said not to weep for her, but to remember her with laughter. She may not have been world famous, but to me she represented something incredibly important... She showed that one person can make a difference. Sometimes there are those things that happen to you in just a moment of time that stay with you for a long time... She was just a person I'd met through my profession, and yet her outlook on life, her laughter, and her kindness stay with me.

I've often thought that reading a book of Encounters would be so encouraging... to be reminded about the things that matter- and to be reminded that one person- CAN make a difference.

There was the lovely woman in her late 80s flying alone from Vancouver to Regina to attend a family reunion. She was so lovely and full of joy- and totally made me regret my earlier thought that I wished the window seat would have remained empty so I could move out of the middle... In a few moments- she made me happier to be alive...

In Blenheim on one cold morning, an elderly woman stopped to pick me up when I was walking to work. She again shared a little of her story- she was living alone after losing her husband in his 60s, something like 20 years earlier. She had never been able to replace him- but that didn't mean she didn't make the most out of life...

I've been reflecting a little about the year + that I've spent in NZ. ... My first home was Nelson, and the sign outside of town when you drive in "Live the Day" really represented that place for me. It was in Nelson that I overcame my fear of heights by riding up in an airplane and doing a tandem sky dive from 15,000 feet. It was in Nelson that I came to love the sea that I was once so afraid of. It was the beautiful Rocks Road and Tahuna beach that encouraged me to start the running phase that ultimately resulted in me finishing my first half marathon... It was in Nelson that I found my home away from home...

But things change, and due to the presentation of an excellent work opportunity here, I made the difficult decision to move to Blenheim just over 7 months ago. It hasn't been an easy move. I've found it difficult to meet people in this town so far, and I miss the sea and the town that my heart loves... Yet when I reflect on those examples that I've previously mentioned, I know that I haven't yet made the best of the opportunity that is still before me. I continue forth, and shall endeavour to make the most of it...