All of the people working all hours to keep supplies going to supermarkets, all the medical personnel working and putting themselves at risk all over the world, all the teachers working all hours with students comforting and reassuring students, all parents trying to cope with small children at home.

When I put my hand ou7t and I say STOP!

Give thanks for the food that I have each moment, each day.

Love would not fear. Love would not get angry. Love would not isolate or judge or be prejudiced. Love knows God.

My holy Catholic Faith and my family.

God speaks to us in countless ways. A little flower that was blooming very close to a drainpipe once reminded me that God kept me and gave me a place to make a stand and to bloom in the difficult situation that I found myself in.

The mountains around Queenstown.

My fears. I want to let my fears go into the wind and I can see this in my mind’s eye. I can see God touching the ball of fear like a hand touching a Dandelion and the ball of fear splitting open and drifting away in the wind. Fear of Coronavirus, fear of getting old and sickly,, fear of not being able to walk, fear of losing my husband, fear of loneliness, fear of not being good enough, fear of attacks by colleagues, students, parents … all those fears drifting away.

I have inherited great faith in God from my ancestors. I saw my father pray many, many times in my life. MY father’s prayers saved me.

The morning the doctor said we could go home after a night in the hospital with my son Benjamin. God is good … all the time … all the time.

The global movement towards a more sustainable future and the many actions all over the world of people standing together and demanding more accountability from their governments give me HOPE.

Filmmaking and editing. Working with InDesign and designing feature articles. That is pretty special.

Getting older is offering me a new perspective on life. I want to talk less and less. I am more conscious of the time and the time that I have left and how important it is to spend the time wisely.

I can encourage other immigrants. I can visit those who are sick and I can write letters to those who are lonely.

Be there for them. support them by listening, contacting them and encouraging them.

Cultivating gratefulness is an antidote to the incessant toxic consumerism. When I look around my small apartment overlooking the bay I am grateful for the simplicity and I think to myself that I am blessed, that I have enough, that I do not have to compare myself to others and that all is well.

Not to judge. To eat a plant-based diet, to exercise, to avoid stress at all costs, to avoid loud and aggressive people, to pray.