Gratitude December - Day 23

Hi friends and fellow bloggers,

I had a post ready in draft for day 23 of Gratitude December.  I must have accidentally deleted it because I can no longer find it.

Today I'm thankful for this booked entitled,  Braiding Sweetgrass authored by Indigenous botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer.  This non-fictional work is about the world of botany as described and explored through Native American eyes. The book was published in 2013 but I only just learned about it. I saw it was highly popular with various celebrities and my curiosity made me wonder why a book about plants was so popular.

The book is sprinkled with real life examples illustrating the knowledge the author wants to impart about plants.  It is very clever, informative, educational and byvturns, surprisingly moving. 

The reason the book gets a special mention on my gratitude list is because gratitude is a key attribute of Indigenous cultures.  The book helps us to see gratitude as practiced by Indigenous cultures and shows us how connected we are to the natural world and how far we have fallen away from respect for the earth and all it provides.  My hope is that the book will help people to become connected once again to the earth and help us to take better care of her.

Have a wonderful rest of your week and a very Merry Christmas.

I will likely post one more day of gratitude December, then take break before resuming to finish Gratitude December. I'll add the gratitude items in one list/blog for the days I miss posting.

To my regular readers, please accept my apologies if you haven't had a comment from me in awhile. For some reason I only seem to be able to post comments intermittently on most blogs. It's frustrating but I'm sure it will resolve in time. In the meantime, I ask for your indulgence. Stay happy and stay safe. MERRY Christmas 🎄🎄🎄

Gratitude December - Day 22

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

Today's post is Day 22 of Gratitude December.  I'm grateful that the Coquihalla Highway has been reopened to commercial traffic.  The reopening is about 1 month earlier than initially expected through the hard work of so many workers, engineers and so on who worked around the clock to reopen it.  

Photo credit:   BC Ministry of Transportation

The highway is a major route that connects the City of Vancouver and the other municipalities in the Lower Mainland with the rest of the country. While it was closed the supply chain was badly affected. Truckers had to use alternate and very dangerous routes to move goods. It will be awhile yet before this major highway is reopened to recreational traffic but today's reopening is definitely good news!

Photo credit:  Darrel Dyck, The Canadian Press

There will be major upgrades to the highway going forward.  Upgrades that will try to strategize around climate change issues so these repairs are temporary in nature.  BC Minister of Transportation, Rob Fleming called the reopening, a Christmas Miracle and I would agree.