The Meaning of Life: Five notable Vancouver Islanders reflect on their life’s journey
THE LAST WEEK before the start of a new year. It’s a time when people often reflect on their lives and make resolutions for the 12 months ahead. But as we look around at how differently other people have used and are using their lives – for an extreme example, Vladimir Putin versus Terry Fox – we sometimes wonder how best to use our own lives and what lessons we’ve learned as we travel this mysterious journey.
Decafnation starts a new tradition this year by asking selected Vancouver Island people to share their acquired knowledge that didn’t come from book-learning or academic studies. We begin today with the collective wisdom of five notable Vancouver Islanders rooted in the Comox Valley.
Read their interesting and varied stories here.
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Revisiting Harry’s love affair with the clouds and stars
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… Thoreau in Walden
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Thank you, thank you. I am grateful for so many things in life. As a person in the forefront of the baby boom I relate to Sheila’s journey, but Rachel and others nailed it: kindness. I wasn’t always kind, at times too wrapped up in working to support my children, balancing, managing life’s challenges; but in my senior years I’ve come to value kindness above all else. And gratitude. With mobility issues, using a cane, I am often the recipient of others’ kindness. It truly is all around us.
Sincerely, best wishes, and thank you, for Decafnation,
I really enjoyed reading these stories from local settlers. I would encourage you, however, to add some Indigenous voices whose time in the valley stretches back millenia. Wedlidi Speck is an example. He is the Hereditary Chief of the E’iksan people whose home the Valley truly is. The K’omoks people were late arrivals here (relatively speaking), but the Puntledge and E’iksan people were the original keepers of this land. Wedlidi has had an amazing career straddling both cultures, and deserves a profile all to himself.