A Charitable Introspection of 2021

Creating lists about what you do on in your life can sometimes shed some interesting light on who you are. 

Take charities for instance. If I look back at the charities Glosette Girl, Margot and I donated to this year, it would reveal we donated to:

• The Gladstone Theatre;
• All Saints Westboro Anglican Church;
• UNICEF;
• Cornerstone (an Ottawa women's shelter) via the "Coldest Night of the Year" fundraiser;
• Operation Come Home (which helps homeless youth);
  
• The Ottawa Mission;
• The Ottawa Foodbank; and
• The GCTC Theatre.

So what does that tell you about my family? Well apparently we are an Anglican arts-loving group that cares about local issues such as ensuring the people (the children, the homeless, and women) are taken care of. That seems fair. I've certainly blogged before about how sad it is to see beggars in our affluent area. 

Some small observations are in order though: I'm actually Catholic not Anglican, despite going to an Anglican Church. Perhaps "confused" or  "General Christian" is more accurate these days! And we usually donate to a few environmental charities as that's important to us too.  However, overall, I think the above charity list does match up to our values.

I have a particular soft spot for the arts this year. That sector of society has been devastated by COVID and with every new wave their misery is prolonged. From the comfort of my stay-at-home job with its steady pay cheque, I can't help admire the resilience of people who choose to bring introspection, thoughtfulness and creativity to the world.

They may not have as obvious an impact on our welfare as doctors and nurses, but I hope others will remember, as we continue to move forward in 2022, the work the creative sector does to help our souls. Their continued existence is testament to the fact that merely surviving isn't enough.

A Nu Gift

Way back when I moved to Hintonburg I blogged about some of the local area grocery stores. In hindsight, I think my comments were a bit off (hipsters apparently go to Loblaws, not Metro), and I didn't comment on a couple. In particular, Nu Grocery, is one I didn't comment on at the time (to be fair to myself, my blog post predates their store opening by a few months).

It's an interesting concept: it's a store dedicated to avoiding single-use packaging. So no saran wrap, cardboard boxes or even cans. Instead, you're supposed to bring in your own jars, weigh them empty, fill them up and they charge you by the weight of the full container (minus the weight of the jar).

Think of a fancy bulk barn.  

Pre-pandemic, I used to go to Nu Grocery once per week. Since then I'm a bit ashamed to admit that my visits have really dropped off. I think it's because I just wanted to get all my groceries in one place (like a traditional grocery store) and also their COVID capacity limits were a bit too strict at first (no one was even allowed in the store for awhile, you had to order ahead of time, although they have since relaxed those measures).

This weekend though my visit was less about food and more about... Christmas! Margot needed to get a gift for her gym teacher, Madame. S, and we struck upon a nice idea: a beeswax candle! Gambling they would sell them here, we popped in, and struck gold.

Margot with the coveted candle

During my visit, I was reminded just how much more human the store feels than the massive chain stores I've been visiting. I think perhaps it's time to restart going here more frequently. 

Moments between the Moments

The more I go through life the more I realize that the moments that make life memorable happen when you are out in the world. This past weekend, with my sister and family in town, we played tourist and:

• Saw the new light and sound show on Parliament Hill;
• Went skating at Landsdowne Park, in the Glebe neighbourhood;
• Went for a winter walk; and
• Saw Margot perform another concert with her musical theatre troupe.

All that was fun but some of the most interesting things that happened - the things will stay with me the longest - occurred at unexpected moments.

For example, while skating a bunch of Santas suddenly appeared and started singing. You heard me - a pile of singing Santas!

 

That was pretty funny. A more gentle moment was when we went on our winter walk. The forecast was grey, miserable and rainy. We risked it anyways and were somehow blessed to be in a surreal pocket of good weather.

Finally, for Margot's show, what we thought it was going to be a quick 1-hour event turned out to be an epic almost two-hour show. As we watched performer after performer present, we kept on wondering, "When's Margot's turn?" It turns out...dead last! It was torturous but also funny when I think about it. Anyone else want to see 30+ acts go on before your child's? Yes, please!

Oh well. Just like with last week's post, when Margot was randomly called upon to light a candle, I truly believe that so much of life happens when you least expect it. And to even have a chance of experiencing them, you have to put yourself out there.

Creating Rituals

One of the reasons I like going to All Saints Westboro with Margot every so often is that it creates a sense of routine and ritual. Once a month, we go to church, see the church regulars, receive the host, and then cap it all off with some bagels from Kettleman's Bagels. It's a nice rhythm we've developed and in addition to helping her become a spiritual person,  I hope years from now Margot will have a sense of nostalgia about all the Sundays she spent with daddy.

December is an especially nice time of year for rituals because of advent. Even if you're secular or from a different religious background, there is something exciting about a community counting down to the same day. 

We've definitely hopped on the advent bandwagon this year. First, Glosette Girl couldn't help herself but she bought Margot a Harry-Potter themed advent calendar. Margot is still loving Mr. Potter and we are now two thirds of the way through book six (not too bad considering we only started reading them in March).

We got extra parent points for this one.

Second, we had to, of course, get the annual chocolate advent calendar.

Finally, after going to church for the past 10-years, our congregation is Margot is pretty familiar with Margot now. So she gets singled out a bit more and this past Sunday even had an opportunity to light the latest advent candle.

I was ready to bolt if she dropped the candle!

I believe its so important in this day and age for parents to look for experiences - spiritual, cultural or whatever. No one will ever remember what social media post they were looking at when they were young. But to be called upon to do something important in front of a crowd? That's a memory!