In the Hindu tradition, there are four stages of life, or Ashrama, divided into four sections.

The first is called the Brahmacharya, or student stage. That’s when we are educated, develop discipline and build character.

The second is called Grihastha, or householder stage, when people can get married, raise children, earn income and focus on the family and community.

After that comes Vanaprastha, or forest dwelling. Quite literally, it meant going to the forest to meditate and study sacred texts. But it also represents a time of withdrawal, or leaving behind, a life of work–retirement, in other words, a time of disengagement from worldly responsibilities to contemplate the deeper meaning of life.

With 18,000 students in 59 government-funded schools, independent schools are playing an increasingly important role in Manitoba.

Many of these schools are religious schools like The King’s School, Dasmesh School, Springs Christian Academy, Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute, Beautiful Saviour Lutheran School, Linden Christian School, Steinbach Christian School and IQRA Islamic School.

On its website, the provincial government says it “strongly supports the rights of parents and guardians to choose their child’s education. Parents choose independent schools for reasons such as faith, philosophy of teaching and learning, and tradition.”

This is quite a contrast to 110 years ago. That’s when the province passed the School Attendance Act of 1916 as a way, during wartime, to promote integration and social cohesion.

In Canada, most Jewish communities recognize two official days, one in January and one in April, to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and honour those who against all odds managed to survive it. For Adeena Lungen, however, the act of commemorating and honouring has never needed a designated day.

As an about to retire social worker in Winnipeg’s Jewish Child and Family Service’s (JCFS) Holocaust Support Program, Lungen has spent 27 years working with local survivors, providing them with emotional and psychological supports, assisting them with practical matters, helping them age with dignity, and holding space for them to grieve and remember those they lost. She also has created special social and cultural programming for them, including Café Europa, a bi-monthly event that brings survivors together to lunch, learn, enjoy eclectic entertainment, and celebrate Jewish holidays.

Lungen was already familiar with many of the city’s survivor community when she assumed her new role at JCFS.

While her mother Clara had escaped Poland on the last ship to sail from Europe before the outbreak of the Second World War, her father Ben, who lost his mother and two siblings to the Nazis, spent the war years hiding in the Belarus woods with a partisan unit. Years after the war, the couple met, married and made their home in Winnipeg.

Last month, the British government issued a warning that hasn’t been heard in that country since the Second World War: stock up on food.

As reported by columnist Gwynne Dyer in this newspaper, the warning came from environment minister Angela Eagle when she was talking about the impact this year’s El Niño could have on food supplies in the United Kingdom.

“We’re about to experience probably the largest El that has ever been seen, and that will lead to drier summers, wetter winters, with more extreme storms in this country,” she said.

That could lead to food shortages, Eagle said, adding: “If you’ve got a store of a bit of food that can keep you going for a while before the emergency services can get to you, you’re going to be a lot better off than if you haven’t.”