What a spring 2022!! Who could possibly have anticipated what has transpired??!! I felt so sure that a new world order was slowly emerging after the pandemic pandemonium of the past two years. Hardly the kind of world order I had hoped for by any means 🙄

The truckers freedom rally started its long journey across Canada to Ottawa to protest the endless mandates imposed by our government. I would have joined in except I am not comfortable driving on winter roads through mountain passes. Cheap excuse not to get involved 🙄! However, I was very proud of the peaceful way the majority of the protestors that did go forth bravely, handled themselves … although not crazy about the incessant horn honking in Ottawa … was that really necessary?? It is inevitable that protests tend to attract a fringe element of bad apples who garner far too much attention! Unfortunately this one certainly did, necessitating the ‘beyond overly knee jerk reactionary actions’ of our Prime Minister. For what it’s worth, I was in total disagreement with how our government handled the situation.

Just as our Canadian situation was settling down and the truck rally folks were making their way back to their home provinces, Russia attacks Ukraine!! What??!! New World Order??!! Hardly! One step forward, ten steps back into the old worn out paradigm of war! Mr. Putin, what were you thinking??!! My father said it best long ago and I have never forgotten his words, roughly translated from his Finnish into English …. “If a diplomatic solution is possible in conflict situations, we must find it! Killing each other is not an intelligent way to solve problems”! It seems incongruous to me that in 2022, we have a large wealthy country like Russia, attacking a smaller country in hopes of adding to its borders and yes, undoubtedly taking advantage of Ukraine’s abundance of natural resources!!! Whaaaat??? Come to your senses Mr. Putin et al. I doubt there is a country in the world who agrees with your choice of action against a peaceful country! The positive to this brutal and unprovoked attack on Ukraine is what I remain hopeful about … that it has led to a powerful and united international response! I pray this war will end soon.

I post some more peaceful scenes from late winter and early spring with my family … to balance out the negatives that are simultaneously going on in our world.

It was good also to see my older sister Maija a week later. She treated me to a delicious birthday lunch at Joeys where we reminisced about our childhood … had some good laughs and a few teary moments too. Totally forgot to capture a part of the afternoon in a picture.

So there we have it … the ‘new start’ to 2022 as May comes to a close 🙄 🙏. Praying for peace on earth