When did I stop knowing how to take a picture?

Our next date will be for me to go over and bake Christmas goods with her in middle December. Natalie’s home is, like, a proper adult family home. She has a husband, and two children; Gabriel, the youngest, was such a chonk when he was born, I couldn’t stop staring at him or trying to steal him. All of the neighbours along the street know one another and look out for one another. They have BBQs together and their kids play together.

Natalie and her guy and babies sit down for dinner together nightly. She plans their weekly menu and her and Adam spend Sundays cooking a massive brunch and readying all meals for the week.

Recently, one of their neighbours – a 47 year old mother of two – passed away from cancer. The street collected money and sent her and the family away last year, when the diagnosis came in and the inevitability was faced. While her husband was her primary care giver (he left work to do so), the neighbours organized a ‘dinner train’ ensuring that someone cooked for them and their children each night. One less thing to worry about while the husband tended to her and the children as she became more and more ill.

I have always said that I learn something new whenever I spend time with Natalie – we discuss ideas, and dig as deeply as we can. She is one of the most intelligent women I know, and the size of her heart is immeasurable.

If you have been following me for any period of time, you know how much I value the people for whom I make explicit time. I sing the praises of all of them, not because I am so kind, but rather because I have learned the character and integrity of only those I would call my Tribe, and only they are welcome in my world. And I am blessed to have found so many.

As an only child.
As a single woman.
I am blessed.

Natalie is the best kind of people. And her goal has become me – that in 2020, I regain the confidence I have lost in people, regain my belief in the goodness and humanity of this world.

I started today by getting off of the hellscape that is Twitter. inshAllah.

Today, I am grateful for:
1. Not yet falling on my ass amidst all of the sidewalk ice.
2. Public transportation. A little less reason to go to war in pursuit of the natural resources of other countries. Thank you public transportation, and my legs, and bicycles.
3. Good knees. PLEASE STAY.

Ottawa | Day 352 | November 17, 2019

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