Happy 2020! I wish you happiness, joy, laughter, love, and health – as good as it can be – for the 2020s and beyond ‘-) As is my tradition on the first day of each year, I’ve been looking back at the past twelve months; at all the things for which I’m thankful.
Every year, I find myself most thankful for the same two things; kindness and love. Which are arguably irrevocably intertwined, at least until you consider recent research which has shown that “love does sometimes exist in abusive relationships.”(1)
Before you can ask: No, that is most definitely not my situation! My husband of 25 years is my soul-mate, a person who can combine kindness in love in a single glance, touch, word… More on that in a moment. There are also many other people in my life for whom I’m thankful, both here and gone, who have steeped my life in kindness and wrapped it in love.
Family members, dear friends, sometimes even a person I’ve recently met with whom a bond has quickly formed. I’m thankful for each of you, and trust that you know it. But don’t worry, I’ll tell you again – and often, as I usually do – just to be sure that you know how much you mean to me.
And you, reading this blog; I’m so thankful for your direct messages via Instagram and Twitter. I’m hoping to be able to re-open the comments on the blog, but each time I try it’s again inundated by x-rated texts from offshore locations ‘-(
This New Year’s Day, I opted for a different thankfulness review of the past 365 days. Rather than thinking of all of the people for whom I’m thankful, I looked back at some of the things I did in 2019.
First, here’s a question for you: Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I don’t, but last year decided that in 2019 I’d try to enjoy more of what Montréal has to offer; events, festivals, and shows.
My idea was to plan a special culture-oriented ‘date night’ with my husband once a month, except during our cycling season when we try to get to sleep early – so we can go for sunrise bike rides before the outdoor temperatures get too hot and humid.
I also went to some daytime art and science lectures and workshops, alone or with friends, this year; Play the Pain, a clay art workshop, a creative writing for pain workshop, and more.
Many of these events were at local community or cultural centres and libraries, in the various cities and towns within a short drive from my home. If ever you’re looking for a reasonably-priced event, consider checking your local community calendar(s); I was even able to find some free events!
The first show of 2019 was a stand-up comedy act, in French, but it was sadly disappointing. The next cultural ‘date night’ was to see a superb Senegalese story-teller, also in French, named Boucar Diouf; he more than made up for the previous not-so-good show.
In February we very deliciously enjoyed the annual “La Poutine Week” in Montréal, which celebrates our iconic Québec food. Fries with gravy and cheese curds just doesn’t cut it as an explanation, you really do have to try it for yourself ‘-) Next up was a small cabaret-style concert with an award-winning “Singer-songwriter, director and Inuk activist Elisapie”.(2)
We’d been blown away by Elisapie’s Inuk throat-singing concert a few years ago, and were thrilled to see her back on stage. Her music this time included lyrics, creating mystical and mythical melodies like “Wolves Don’t Live by the Rules”.(3) She sang some of the songs in Inuktitut, some in English, and others in French.
Still in February, we spent a week in Ottawa to celebrate Valentine’s Day and the 27th anniversary of our first date. It was also the city’s Winterlude Festival, so it was a great time to be there with plenty of walk-in events taking place in different locations throughout the area.
My husband and I both love museums, perhaps odd for folks who adore outdoor sports as much as we do, but that’s one of the reasons for which we’re such a good fit for each other. While in our national capital we visited the National (art) Gallery, the still-new Holocaust Memorial, a Freedom from Slavery photography exhibition, and the Museum of Civilization, and the War Museum.
We also squeezed a family visit into our short getaway, by having dinner with my cousin and her love. That week also happened to also be the city’s new “Beer my Valentine” festival, so of course we had to have dinner in a nice little craft brewery. The food was also surprisingly good ‘-)
Then we had a few more cultural date nights, much closer to home. There’s a beautiful wooden lakeside church nearby, built in 1881, which offers classical music concerts every few months; we managed to get tickets for a few of these.
At this church we saw Québec’s classical guitar quartet in February, then the Metropolitan Orchestra of Montréal in March. We loved that Orchestra so much that we went to another of their concerts in April, and then again in October; at each the Orchestra played different pieces.
Have you realized that at we have somewhat eclectic taste in music? Here’s another example… we also saw the Thomas Rhett (Akins Jr.) country-music concert at the Bell Centre (home of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team!) in April. It was my pick, but my husband was surprised that he loved this show too.
In May we enjoyed three consecutive nights of the Pint of Science festival “which brings some of the most brilliant scientists to your local pub to discuss their latest research and findings with you”(4). Presentations by scientists, over drinks in craft breweries = What’s not to love?! We enjoyed this so much last year that we overjoyed to get tickets for three events this year:
- High-tech healthcare (in French)
- The science of the mind and the brain
- The making of artificial intelligence (AI), with a robot as a special guest presenter
By this time our cycling season had started, and we wanted to enjoy summer evenings on our patio, so we took a bit of a break from going out. By last autumn, my husband had ridden 7,000 km. There were some exceptions to our summer moratorium though. In June we saw a French comedian named Rachid Badouri, with an excellent stand-up show.
We attended a friend’s wedding in July; I’ve spent so much time with my physical therapist that I now count him among my friends! His wife as well, as she was often at the clinic to meet her fiancée after work and I’d be his last patient. Or his victim, we’d often joke; physiotherapy for my rare disease, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is – as the name implies – exceedingly painful.
September brought a new approach to our science talks, an outstanding combination concert and neuroscience lecture; “The Brain and Music”. My husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary the following month with a hiking trip to the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State. But we stayed in a hotel, rather than camping out 😉
We still had a date night at home in October, a blues concert. Then came Halloween – always a big deal for me. I love turning our front yard into a scary adventure for the kids. Sometimes I think I like Halloween better than Christmas!
In November we saw Chicago-born comedian Sebastian Maniscalco, and were lucky to get great side seats in a stadium setting. What else? Oh, we went to a TEDtalk-style science event; PAINtalks 2019 was organized by young pain researchers, with an excellent line-up of presentations.
We closed out our cultural events for the year last month with a show by Sussex, a Canadian band which combines early blues, jazz, and folk music. With an absolutely astounding vibraphone player. And, of course, we’ve also been watching Habs games on tv during the hockey season.
Then it was Christmas, with Hanukkah gifts for Jewish friends and Happy New Year gifts for Muslim friends. Forgive me the cliché, but I really can’t believe that it’s already the start of a new year. 2019 was a time of enormous upheaval in my life, and I count myself as truly blessed that I had my loved ones to see me through it; with kindness and love.
My offbeat idea, to focus on cultural events and to find new things to do each month, was also very helpful. This approach to the year gave me more focus, helped me to see a future that had seemed blank without my career.
I haven’t quite decided yet what my focus will be for 2020, as I’ve taken a true break over the holidays this year. What I do know is that I’ll be involved in some projects as a Patient Partner, and will continue my efforts to raise awareness of CRPS so that future patients with this horrid disease can hopefully have better outcomes than mine. If I can help only one other patient this year, it will be worth it!
Thanks so much, as always, for stopping by and reading this post. All the very best for 2020 – happiness, health, laughter, and love!
References
(1) Mary Pocock, Debra Jackson & Caroline Bradbury-Jones. Intimate partner violence and the power of love: A qualitative systematic review. Health Care for Women International. ePub 17 Jun 2019; doi 10.1080/07399332.2019.1621318. Accessed 31 Dec 2019:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07399332.2019.1621318?journalCode=uhcw20
(2) Kaitlin Ruether. Elisapie Raises Her Voice, In Multiple Languages, on ‘The Ballad of the Runaway Girl’. Exclaim! Media. Online 14 Sep 2018. Accessed 01 Dec 2019:
http://exclaim.ca/music/article/elisapie_raises_her_voice_in_multiple_languages_on_the_ballad_of_the_runaway_girl
(3) Elisapie Isaac. Wolves Don’t Live by the Rules. Audio CD album ‘The Ballad of the Runaway Girl’. 07 Sep 2018. YouTube (this song):
(4) Pint of Science Canada. About. Pint of Science Canada website. Accessed 01 Jan 2019:
https://pintofscience.ca/about/