It certainly has been a tough 4 weeks since my last post. Those ‘count your blessings’ people – I just want to hit them.

Where to start? It started with another writing contest being finished. “How can that be tough”?” you ask. Do you have that letdown feeling after you’re done a project? I’ve always found that for me. It’s work, work, work and then nothing. It’s that time between finished and enjoy when you have lots of free time that you don’t know how to fill yet.

The contest’s theme was the best of a bad choice. My story was the choice a girl has to make in order to save her sister. Not a feel good story. I struggled with this one – it was loosely based on events from my childhood and so, it brought up painful memories. I don’t think it was my best work – too close to home.  Hence, I believe, the let-down.

Then there was the Humboldt crash.  I didn’t know any of the players or their families. I didn’t know the truck driver. I did not know anyone who was impacted, directly or indirectly. All the same, I cried. And it still brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. All that lost potential. And lots of people felt that way if the GoFundMe page is any indicator.

Next came the ice storm. Really – April 16^th. Will winter never end?  We were lucky in our house. We had no floods, no broken trees, no loss of electricity. In a telephone conversation, a colleague who is also a volunteer firefighter talked about the challenges that the ice storm caused in his neighborhood. We were, indeed, very lucky. Mother Nature, please bring summer.

Yesterday, I learned that two of my fellow writers in my writing group died suddenly in the span of a week. I didn’t know Helene well. From the comments and condolences being published, Helene was very-well liked. Enthusiastic about writing and giving feedback, she touched a lot of lives in our group.  She was 92. Victor, who died this past weekend, was kind and generous with his comments and suggestions to improve stories. I was the recipient of many of those and will miss reading his entries. He retired recently from university work to pursue writing on a full time basis. He was 68. I always thought that we could be friends. Now I will never have the chance.

As I write this, someone ran down people on a sidewalk in Toronto. Ten people dead and 15 injured. What are we doing to ourselves?

In all of this world of sadness, let’s hang onto one positive thing. The temperature got to 19 degrees celsius today. Maybe summer is here.

I read somewhere that blog posts are supposed to provide lessons learned and be positive. Sorry, not this one.

Until the next time.