Keeping it all in perspective
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I know I am not alone in feeling this, but it feels like the world was turned upside down in 2025 and, sadly, it looks like this will continue into 2026. I have no desire to rehash all that has happened, to ignore its seriousness nor to refuse to worry about what the future may bring — however it needs to be put it into perspective and not allowed to take over our lives.
Personally, I have always been something of a news junkie, with politics being at the lower-end of the scale. By that I mean that I rarely did any deep dives – until this past year, when politics and world affairs bumped right up to the top. In many ways, it feels as if they took over our lives.
It was only over the holidays that I realized how the constant bombardment of stories and rhetoric can take its toll. This happened as a result of a series of personal misadventures.
Photo by Debbie Ristimaki
Sometimes a walk in the park, and a sighting of a northern saw-whet owl, helps remind us what’s important.
And when I say misadventures, I mean:
• A burst hot water tank and flood;
• Having to barbecue Christmas dinner because our stove died;
• Having no internet;
• Blocked kitchen sinks, which became a blocked drain which subsequently caused our washing machine to drain onto the floor – yes, another flood;
• Finally, the motor on our furnace decided it was time to retire.
In a nutshell, our holiday experiences served as a reminder to focus on what is truly important and what we can control.
I am not suggesting we could have controlled what happened but we can control how we react, what lessons we learn and, most importantly; what we can do to ensure that we are ‘in the right space’ both mentally and physically. I know that I was likely not in that space and it impacted how I handled the issues.
How did I come to the realization? A simple walk in Assiniboine Park with my partner and my camera. It was cold. We trudged through snow. We listened to the black-capped chickadees. The nuthatches followed us. We talked. We laughed. And we saw our first owl – a northern saw-whet owl, thanks to the generosity of a stranger who pointed it out to us.
These are the moments that count – the moments that are truly important. They served as a welcome reminder as we returned home, continued our cleanup and eventually put the TV back on. The difference was fresh perspective.
So, my word for 2026 is: resilience.