HOMELESS BUT NOT HOPELESS

Dec 27/09

One of our ambitions after retirement was to “reinvent” ourselves which we defined as doing things outside our comfort zones and searching for new experiences.  We’ve been stretched in a number of situations and are still looking for opportunities to learn and grow.

On Christmas Eve, we attended a church service at a downtown centre called the Metro.  It is one of 5 locations that are all part of one main Willow Park Church centred in Kelowna.  The Metro is a converted night club and the majority of the people are homeless, lost or down-trodden people who congregate in the downtown area.

The place was full of talk and laughter as most of the 50 plus people seemed to know each other.  Christmas carols were led by singers and guitar players on a small stage but it certainly wasn’t a formal service.  Many of the audience just kept talking through the songs although some of them listened, or joined in if they knew the song.  I think a lot of them were anticipating the hot roast beef dinner being served after the service.

The pastor (a regular guy wearing jeans and a shirt) welcomed everyone and reminded us that their purpose for gathering as a church is to seek God and pursue truth in an atmosphere of love where judgment is left at the door.  Much easier said that done, as it takes effort to see others through a neutral, non-judgmental lens.  The reality of these people’s lives really hit home for me when the pastor prayed for those who could not be there that evening as they were sick, in jail or still out on the streets.  And where did we sleep that night?

After we sold our house last summer, we often joked about being homeless as we have no fixed address.  Well, meeting the street people in Kelowna has given us a realistic view of what it means to be truly homeless.  However, the kindness and caring of the leaders of the Metro gatherings shows that there is hope for anyone and everyone who needs it.

ANTICIPATING CHRISTMAS

Dec 20/09

It’s interesting how we Canadians are almost obsessed with the weather and how it affects our activities, attitudes and even our traditions.  Many of us have grown up with white, snowy Christmases and we just don’t feel like its Christmas unless it snows.  Fortunately, that’s not a problem for us.  We had snow again this past week but it only stayed around for 2 days and we will enjoy Christmas no matter what the weather does.

We’re having a simplified Christmas this year and it is very relaxing and stress free.  We are keeping the traditions that are important to us—sending out Christmas cards and messages to friends and family, putting up some decorations and lights, picking fresh greenery, wearing Christmas earrings (for me, not Stuart) and having an eggnog while listening to our favourite Christmas carols.  We’ve simplified our gift giving as well so there will be no need for anyone to re-gift any silly items or knickknacks from us.

We have a turkey dinner planned although Stuart is reluctant to purchase a turkey.  He says there will be some really good deals in the last few shopping days before Christmas.  I hope he’s right or we’ll be having StoveTop stuffing and cranberry sauce that day!

So Christmas is a great time to relax, indulge yourself with some pleasures, rest from work and reflect on all the blessings in your life.

We wish you a merry and peaceful Christmas.

CITY LIVING

Dec13/09

Another week has gone by for us in the condo and we are learning many things about city living.  We go out 2 or 3 times a day and see very few people in the elevator, the lobby or the fitness room.  Perhaps it’s because this condo is part of a resort that is very busy in the late spring, summer and early fall, but not so much in the winter.  The building is only about 50% occupied and the people who do live here full time must go about their business on a daily basis, but we don’t see them.

It was very different in the RV park where most people were around during the day and we had all sorts of conversations with new people every few days.  I guess we had the common element of living in the park and camaraderie with folks who like to travel with, and live in RV’s.

We do lots of walking in the Waterfront Park and all through the streets of downtown.  Pedestrians can be “fair game” for motorists even with well marked crosswalks and traffic light controlled intersections.  We’ve been very vigilant in watching the vehicles even when we have the right-of-way, but that doesn’t always work.  Yesterday, two pedestrians were crossing the main street downtown in accordance with the WALK signal and a person making a left hand turn almost hit the first pedestrian and then hit the second one, killing her immediately.  It was shocking to see that on the news as we’ve crossed at that location many times.

The weather has been cold this week and we had about 1 cm of snow one day.  The snow was so dry and light that wind blew it all away overnight.  

We can see snow across the lake in Westbank but it’s running shoe weather here again.

I have my treatment planning session scheduled for Dec 18 and will start the daily treatments on Jan 4.  That will work out well and there won’t be any extended breaks due to the Christmas holidays.

We were in Orchard Park mall on Friday morning and got a taste of commercial Christmas.  It was nice to see all the decorations and the people who were shopping seemed to be enjoying themselves rather than being frantic.  We weren’t buying much and didn’t have to stand in any long line-ups.

We’ll be putting up our Christmas decorations in the next few days.  We packed a small Christmas tree that has fibre optic lights, a red bead garland and a string of red LED lights that we’ll put out on the balcony railing.  We envisioned putting the lights on the RV awning in Arizona but this will look just fine.

CONDO LIVING

Dec. 6/09

Living in a high rise concrete condo isn’t too bad at all.  We are loving the view of the lake, the new bridge over Okanagan Lake, the waterfront park and even Tolko’s mill.  What a wide range of urban and nature activities to see from one place.

Last night we happened to look out at the bridge just before 5:00 p.m. and the vehicles were just crawling along in all 4 lanes for about 20 minutes.  Then it cleared up and no problems after that.  Not too bad if that was the height of rush hour.

We learned what happens in buildings like this when the power goes out.  Fortunately, it went out during the early afternoon so we didn’t need lights.  There are diesel generators that kick in and keep some hallway lights on and one of the elevators working.  The doors to the underground parking automatically open up and stay open until the power comes back on.

We headed out for a walk when the power went off and stopped at the library on the way back.  There was enough light from the windows to read the book covers so we chose a few as we’ve been reading a lot since we retired.  The check-out librarian had to write down our card number, name and all the bar code numbers from the books.  They sure missed having the automatic scanner working.


The power was still out when we got back to the condo and then the generator quit just before we entered the elevator.  There was a problem with the coolant level that needed to be fixed so we had to walk up the 12 flights of stairs.  A good workout especially for Stuart with a backpack full of books.


No firm date has been set for my radiation treatments yet but I will be doing the planning session sometime in the next 2 weeks.  It would be nice to get it all started before Christmas.

And it’s hard to believe that Christmas is only 19 days away.  I keep thinking that they’re just trying to fool us with all the songs, advertising and decorations as it still feels like autumn around here.  The only snow we see is on the mountain tops and the willow trees still have their leaves.  Maybe it’s like that here every December.

Every day is still an adventure and we are grateful for all the blessings.