We celebrated our 15th anniversary this weekend. Needless to say, a lot of water flows under a bridge in 15 years. I feel thankful that we got through the floods and the droughts and everything in between and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next 15 years will bring us.
For the occasion, we left our beloved forest and found a nice hotel located in the heart of downtown Montreal. Being native Montrealers, we know the city inside-out. Still, we were amazed by the beauty of the skyline and the energy that pulsed through it’s arteries. City life has really become somewhat foreign to us and we felt like tourists in our own home town. It was great to find old places we used to hang out and to reminisce about our youth and the places we kissed. We were so busy taking in the sights and sounds that I completely forgot to take pictures of us. (The picture of us above is from last year.)
So much stuff so little time.
It was also a pretty eye opening experience. After living in the woods for 3 years, to walk into a store like Simons and see rack, upon rack, upon rack of clothes and store, upon store, upon store filled to the brim with “stuff”. Sullen or headless mannequins silently urging us to buy buy BUY!. Jam packed restaurants and parking lots. People everywhere, cash registers chiming happily, holiday decorations lighting the night sky; it was a pretty impressive sight. Although I’ve seen the city be busier this time of year, Francis and I observed that the cratering economy really didn’t seem to be on anyone’s mind. Or was it?
We are all interconnected
Passing a homeless guy sitting on the sidewalk, I wondered what retailers were going to do with all the clothes they don’t sell this season. Then, I wondered how much “stuff” they need to sell to pay for rent and utilities and give jobs to all those young people. I wondered about where the clothes had been made and whether or not those workers had received fair wages. There are so many things to consider as we make our choices this holiday season. It’s easy to point the finger and blame the big corporations for the evils of the world but we all take part in this dance.
As I looked out the window early Sunday morning I started wondering about the kind of energy it takes to build a city full of sky scrapers. I am amazed by what we humans are able to accomplish.
Imagine what we will build and create once we all start working towards the common good.
These are exciting times. Change is in the air and if history has taught us anything it’s that the sky isn’t the limit.
