Everything goes with Dinka... (especially celebrations; art exhibitions, birthdays and Halloween)

Well October has always been a crazy month of non-stop celebrating : between birthdays, art openings and Halloween it’s impossible to diet. Dinka was born 86 years ago on October 29th and it warms my heart to hear her say “I think this year is one of the best birthdays I’ve had so far”. Guess that means we’ll have to raise the bar annually and something tells me we’re up to the challenge!!

Let’s start with a little visual re cap of the year.

Yes there have been lots of adventures keeping our social sensibilities alive and powered up. Celebrating life has never been hard for me and as you can see Mom’s no slouch in that department either. I have to admit I feel pretty blessed to be at an age where I “get it”, meaning understand the precious moment we have in life just being here and being able to share the love. Circumstances can be difficult and issues arise that can make us feel disheartened and like giving up and if life was easy we’d all be happy; wouldn’t be a need for the 10 percent happier ap and the likes of that. As I told my sister recently, “life is what you make of it”. It’s important to keep active spend time with the people who bring you joy, eat drink and be merry as the saying goes. When it gets down to the crunch that is what life is all about. Mom certainly helps keep the glass half full and for me it’s joyous to share the crazy adventures she takes me on.

Now onto October celebrations!! This year we had so many people come out of the wood work to celebrate Mom it was fantastic. During the pandemic breakout we met people and watched a lot of Netflix; Turkish subtitled series became one of our favourites; check out some of the great shots below of the head gear and textiles of another time and place. When not watching Resurrtection Eturgul we made time for our Covid friends who graciously invited us for dinner. Also for a longtime friend from younger days booked Whistler for the weekend and dear friends driving up to share the day and art at the Audain Art Museum to name a few of the extra happy times of October. By the way it is definitely worth a day trip up to the Audain to see the special exhibition — I’m going back a few times before it’s gone in February without a doubt.

Closing October and having a Happy Halloween with the magical cemetery we celebrated strong important women, 4 who were connected to Strathcona. Although Viola Desmond and Sister Wendy were not from here they were important to art, culture and anti racism. Sue Teahan was a neighbour and when we lost her in 2020 it was here where we celebrated her life with her family and friends during covid restrictions. Barbara Howard, Mary Lee Chan and Nellie Yip Quong contributed love, activism and were strong role models in this neighbourhood. We learn something new everyday, or can, enjoy sharing the love of knowledge.

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