Everyone is grumpy right now, except me

More from Juno, your favourite dog-blogger

Folks are testy right now, really tense, short-tempered, on edge, anxious at least, frantic at worst. Everywhere I look, strain creases almost every human face in conversations about people, places, and of course, politics. There are so many events and challenges before us as Canadians, Americans, and global citizens which justify serious concern. In most, humans have little real influence to affect positive change—beyond voting of rouse—but chatting about things does help folks process their thoughts and emotions. If you can’t solve the problem, finding common ground helps sometimes.

What do I see right now? There is the relentless war in Ukraine; the building up of alliances between Russia, China, and North Korea and escalating war in the Middle East just for starters; thousands of human beings die each and every day. There are elections coming especially in the US, arguably the most important election in decades. Show us your stuff USA. Are you in any way “united?”

I watch these events unfolding from my unique “on-the-ground” perspective, a “view from below” if you will, “paws in the dirt”; I hit pause/paws, for a moment here. Anyway, looking at my own life, I have so much to celebrate; I am after all 5 years old now. Most days, it’s worth slowing down and counting my blessings; and I encourage others to do something similar. Make a list (check it twice) of some positive things in your life and build your day around them instead of succumbing to the spew of global angst. Train your thoughts differently. I list some of my positive thoughts below:

1. The Mayor of Kamloops, his Worship Reid Hamar-Jackson has had his office re-located to the basement of City Hall, this on the orders of Worksafe BC. I hope he enjoys the view out his new window; or does he even have a window?

• The New York Yankees won Game Four of the World Series yesterday, a decisive  action packed runaway 11-4 victory forcing Game 5 tonight. Can’t wait.

• I found a wonderful stick on my dog walk a couple of days ago. (See above.) PaPaw thought it was a stick so he let me carry it home. En route he did wonder if it was actually a stick; well, it was a body part, a lovely, smelly mammalian forearm with very long, dark nails, smelly and tasty to bout. A delicious ambulatory delicacy.

• MaPaw has returned from Victoria where she helped Cameron and Emm set up their new home together. We will be some of their first guests at Christmas time. I can’t wait as they live right beside a favourite walking path, where I bet they have bones in abundance.

• The BC provincial NDP have eked out a narrow majority government win here in BC. Wow, close; final results were not announced until nine days after election day. (Hello USA.)

• Everywhere, there are elections. A Liberal win in New Brunswick and a strong NDP showing in Saskatchewan did little to soften the blow of a fifth consecutive Saskatchewan Party win in their recent provincial election. Now we await a Nova Scotia election just in time for Christmas. o, ho, no. And of course, there’s the Trudeau gong show in Ottawa.

• We will visit Kamloops this weekend. There is some sort of anniversary event at the Cathedral to which we (well, not me it must be said) have been invited. It is always fun to visit Uncle Lawrence and Auntie Joan again; we will certainly visit Pioneer Park again (this is where the Red Bridge recently burned down).

• Fall colours here in Summerland have been vivid and glorious. Go here and here for some of PaPaw’s photo galleries.

• PaPaw now reads me Sabbath poems by Wendell Berry each night before bed. To all the people-shit (not dog-shit) flying around presently Berry responds through the lens of creation, celebrating beauty, and modelling simplicity.

1. Friend Lance loves to send us beautiful music with which to start our day. Today’s music is here, a lovely take on a classic English folk tune.

So enjoy your day, woof, Juno