Commentary

Do we really know what time it is in our lives?

April 22, 2026   ·   0 Comments

The Chinese remind us to enjoy ourselves, because “it’s later than we think.” Yes, the future does have a nasty habit of arriving all too quickly, hiding just out of sight and then running right into our path. We don’t pay much attention because we have so much to concentrate on during our action-packed and stressed-out days.

Our inner spirit is essential to who we are

They say our spirit is indomitable. It takes a beating, almost daily, and yet still musters up a smile, or fills you with warmth, like a hot cup of tea. Saint Francis de Sales urged us not to lose our inner peace for anything, “even if your whole world seems upset.”

Admiring our ancestors’ sense of gratitude

I had to pick up trash bags on my way home from work the other day. Green garbage bags. I comment, under my breath, that I often feel like a pack mule, carrying out menial tasks, carrying cargo from there to here. The banality of these chores is often mind-numbing. I’m reminded these are, in fact, First World problems. And there’s the crux of it all.

Becoming a slave to the working day

Like the dwarves in Snow White, I “owe,” so it’s off to work I go. Day in and day out, month after month, year after year. After so many years of climbing the ladder, who isn’t tempted to simply “walk away?” Just ask The Box, who proclaimed in their 1984 tune Walk Away: “I caught myself dreaming of an open field In October when the wind turns the sky to grey I could stand still there in the middle of the hay Could do nothing but to wish time would fade slowly here Its a working day, a rainy day … Walk, walk, walk away … It’s a mid-week day, a working day… Walk, walk, walk away …”

The space we leave behind contains ‘us’

Our time here is limited – we all know that. But we ignore it, hide from it, even believe we’ll go on forever. But the truth hurts. If you’ve ever had a handful of fine beach sand and let it run through your fingers, you have an analogy of our lives. We are one of those grains. Millions slip through our fingers, ending up back where they came from, where they belong. We can mold them, step on them, wet them down but they don’t change, break or disintegrate. They simply are.

Fees, charges, red tape tangle us all

It’s been suggested that taxpayers shouldn’t have to wait in line or on hold, simply to untangle bureaucratic red tape. And we shouldn’t have to pay for it, either. While technology has opened up avenues to contact various officials and agencies, I think there’s some unseen noodle-like network where individual requests go to die.

Are people in our lives by chance or design?

I’ve often wondered about just how and why certain people end up in our lives, or become a few paragraphs in our personal storybook. Sure, our work and social circles bring us into contact with literally hundreds of souls. But we don’t click with each and every one. We aren’t drawn, like electricity, to everyone’s heart and soul. And yet, we find them, or they find us.

Bending the truth is part of democratic politics

My son recently asked me why politicians aren’t punished for lying. That should be against the law, he argued. I puzzled and puzzled until my puzzler was sore. “Well, you see, er, well, there are different kinds of lying … Um, white lies, bold-faced lies, bendies, stretchies …” I uttered.

Shedding the building blocks of life in our tears

Are the tears that roll down my cheeks when I’m alone filled with all that I am? Do such small things contain all of my memories and bits of pieces of my life?

Allowing the erosion of our civil liberties

Most of us skip along merrily in our daily lives, enjoying the rights and freedoms granted to us in this beautiful country of ours. We are a multi-cultural mosaic – a welcoming, giving, embracing society. We also cherish, and extend basic human rights, to all who’ve been denied them. We are activists, lobbyists, environmentalists, and community role models. We care about our neighbours.

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