Thanks for Reading

I didn't know where it came from:

I had to make a decision for three abutting buildings to be demolished. Sites were cleaned up. I created three small squares on each one.

Every day I took a basket of small particles and spread it out in the squares. Three ducks came there and ate.

I was asked to explain my actions. I didn't know how.

Ducks don't have long lives.They face many hazards.I might even be creating one by enticing them there.

My mind went to a person in jail. In a cell behind bars. Hearing iron clanging against iron and numbers of doors locked behind them everywhere they went. Condemned for years of their lives. How cruel and inhumane is that?

The thought causes me physical distress. What did it have to do with tearing down three buildings,and spreading three small squares with food particles for three small frail creatures?

If I offered that as a jumbled explanation people would know me for a fool.

Then I opened my eyes ..

As it often is, the dream was clear as a bell and the details were sharp.

What prompted it?

What were my last thoughts before sleep?

What happened in the last hours of yesterday?

On the news,a young woman in the thirty-seventh week of pregnancy, sentenced to jail. I switched the channel. No matter the offence,the penalty was unthinkable.

Other news was of two separate incidents of men stealing poppy boxes from retail counters. My reaction was; "Dear God, how desperate they must be"

There might be as little as three dollars in each of the boxes but their need was so great as to risk being hunted like animals and caught.

The full force of the Toronto Police Department,each earning in the range of $100 Ks and twenty eight million in overtime for patrolling city construction sites and a Chief probably earning half a million, will be ranged against them.

The last thought was on an e-mail from a young Aurora mother relating how Hallowe'en fun for her three small girls was spoiled by thoughtless,officious actions of a person who auspiciously wears a public image of ethical gentility and friend of youth and then her  colleagues' defence,upbraiding the mother because the issue was not a town matter and directing  her not to send  any more e-mails.

I've developed a few small maxims for my life.

One is that life is short and full of risk. Not a day to be wasted.

No-one has a right to steal another's peace.

Life should not be shared when one can't make the other happy.

One should not stand silent and watch dishonesty or injustice or unkindness to children, old people or those who have hit bottom.

The last thing I watched before I fell asleep last night was a woman in her fifties diagnosed with alzheimers, who had always been an activist, who intended to keep right on teaching young people how to live a good life as long as she was able.

Because she loves it. It means everything to her.

The human mind is truly amazing. Not to be wasted. Nor for a second.