April 3

April 3, 2020

Fifty spins around the sun; still doesn’t feel quite real to me.  Life to this point has treated me well; I have had my pain and my trepidation along the way.  Like Joe Walsh says “Life’s been good to me so far.”  Now is probably the most uncertain I have ever been in my adult life.  I embark on a new chapter, one I find myself writing as I go along.   Fifty years on planet earth and I look forward to many more.

I don’t turn on the news today. Instead I choose to bask in the love that everyone bestows on me.  Birthday wishes galore and many wonderful friends have sent their love.  I feel so very grateful for the connection that is brought to me through this new and wondrous technology.  I remember being ten years old and asking my dad if we would ever be able to talk to someone through the TV.  He never imagined that could be possible.  Forty years later and we can talk through a screen that fits in the palm of our hand; face to face across the world.  Today’s world is so connected, yet when I was ten people were more connected with each other.

We are hoping to have a campfire and a very small group of friends come to celebrate at six foot distances.  I find out today campfire’s are banned, a very happy birthday from the regional district, such party killers.  My social distance party goes ahead, no fire and only a couple close friends come over.  We keep apart, conscious of the new regulations, they are calling it physical distance now; everything changes daily.  Just after our friends leave our neighbours jump the fence and come to say hi, it is the first time they have come to our home. They come carrying a home-made delicious loaf of bread. Home made bread just like I had when I was ten.  We stand on the deck and enjoy a bevy and a new connection.  This is not the party I was planning for my fiftieth birthday, but it is one I won’t soon forget.

Happy birthday to me! I am a very lucky man to have so many wonderful friends, people that have wished me so many wonderful things today and in the past weeks and years.  My heart is warm with the love from my friends, my family and of course my wonderful wife and daughter.  I will be starting the Blog that is suggested to me, I will use my legal first name many of you may not know;  Victor. The blog will be located at http://www.victorbarr.ca I don’t know what I will name it but I will discover that soon, I am open to suggestions.  I will continue my journal there, someone needs to chronicle these strange days we are living.

I look forward to follow my passion, my dream and I hope to have my friends along for the ride.