Our Story: Part 11 - Last Words

As I draw this series to a close, covering some of the highlights (and lowlights) of our story, I feel a whole slew of new questions, lessons, and adventures opening up before us. How do we pick up the pieces and move on from the devastation of the past year and a half? Is it even over? How do we look ahead in the midst of so much uncertainty? How do we recover our passion and joy for this “non-essential” business of ours?

We start by remembering that an industry’s financial contribution to Canada’s GDP is only one indicator of what is “essential.” The government has its own definition for that word, and we learned early on that what they really meant was essential to the economy, not to the lives and health of people. We remember that anything that cannot be quantified, infinitely measured, put into hard statistics, or intellectually understood, has always suffered with the changing tides. And our humanity has, too.

We can accept and value the work that feeds the soul of our community, nurtures the irrepressible human spirit, even if it doesn’t make for big pockets or large GDP percentages. We can shake off this non-essential label and remember that things like mental health support, safe and attainable housing, many social supports, compassion, love, and, really, anything that operates on an intuitive level, is also treated as non-essential within the limitations of a capitalist society. It’s just a system, and it’s just a word.

Come what may, I am happy to have taken the road less travelled. I am thankful to still be standing, and for the changes I have witnessed in myself as a result of hardship. And I am, as always, hopeful for the future. Because without hope, we have nothing.

Thank you for reading the Our Story series. I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey.

Lindsay