Milestones

Editorial - The Regional Newspaper: May 2012

Every birthday, I give myself a gift.  Sometimes, it’s a tangible item.  Sometimes it’s a day off. This time, I’ve given myself the gift of honesty.  In a world in which I often have to bite my tongue and say the expected, politically-correct thing, my gift to myself on this landmark year is to share my feelings.

As we wind our way through life, our experiences and the world around us shape us, bending the raw material into the person we eventually become. My personal journey has been one of growth, and I’ve often felt like the world’s oldest student – always driven to learn new skills, experience things I’d never tried.

Then, sometime around mid-life, things started to change.  In addition to learning and experiencing, I started to feel a certain dissatisfaction. Not with my lot in life, and certainly not with my family and friends – there, I’ve been blessed, and I know it.  No, this dissatisfaction stems more from a knowledge that so much is wrong and so little is being done.  It comes from knowing that so many speak of what should be done yet so few put the effort in to do it.  And it comes from the general knowledge that so many people will spend more time in endeavours designed to make others look foolish than they will to solve the problems in their own lives.

And what brings all this navel-gazing about?  In simple words, this is a milestone birthday for me and it has me examining myself and the world I live in.  It is a world where government and politics is more about posturing and personal gain than it is about the good of the people. It is also a world in which news is available in an instant, but is often suspect – fast becoming just one more thing that is manipulated to lead the average person around by the nose.  It’s a world in which even the food we are being sold is not real any more – filled with additives, genetically modified, covered in chemicals. 

And in all of this, I inevitably get to wondering… is this the world I wanted to help build as a legacy for my children?  Not so much.  I could be wrong, but I suspect many of us feel this way, in these turbulent, often troubling times. 

Am I depressed, disillusioned, down for the count?  I might have been when I was younger – might have felt weighed down by the sheer magnitude of what is wrong in the world and what is required to make it right.  But one thing I know. We may live in a world with many problems, but it is also a world of endless possibility.  And I’m a “glass-half-full” kinda gal. 

No – what I am is determined.  I’m determined to continue to make as much of a difference as often as I can.  I’m determined to try to seek out, experience and share as much good as I can.  And I’m determined to find ways to teach my children to make a difference too. 

Speaking of children… I’d like to take a moment to send a special Mother’s Day message my own Mom, Inez (whom we lost 16 years ago) and to my husband’s Mom, Lynda. Their unwavering support and love have helped shape all their children into strong, wonderful people.  I only hope I can do half as well with my own kids. 

This May issue sees return visits from all our favourite regular contributors, and shares a lot of great information about our little corner of the world.  I hope you enjoy reading it.

Shelly