Greetings from Moose Jaw, SK, where the temperature is a chilly -22 C (that's about -4 for those of you who read this from the US) and the wind is blowing hard enough from the north that the Canadian flag that flies over city hall is straight off the pole.
What are you doing in Moose Jaw you ask? Well... my wife's grandfather passed away and we all returned for his funeral. All of the grandchildren and cousins were able to come as well. Grandpa was a good and godly man. He was 92 and quite ready to go to heaven to be with Jesus and Grandma. The funeral was on Thursday. It was only -8 with a north wind and I thought that was cold... it's suddenly become very balmy because everything is relative.
So we are here enjoying a few days with family and friends. Both of our parents live here plus some aunts and uncles so it's always nice to come back even though we don't do it very often. Summer is more preferable than winter, although in the winter you don't have mosquitoes. That being said, in the summer you don't get frostbite so it's a bit of a trade off.
Lest you think Moose Jaw is a desolate place, let me tell you about where I'm writing from. I'm sitting in a little coffee bar on the 4th floor of a luxury spa. Our boys are swimming with Grandma, 2 aunts and 4 little cousins. Barb isn't here so I'm opting to write a blog post while everyone has a swim. The pool is just like a hot springs pool. The water is about 104 F but it's very therapeutic and refreshing. There's a small outdoor pool that you access by swimming through a small gate. That's the first place the boys went, although, they've since returned to the main pool. I'm guessing the drifting snow had something to do with that.
I lived in Moose Jaw when the work began to build what they call 'The Spa'. An old hotel was torn down as were some other buildings to make room for what some people saw as nothing but a pipe dream and a white elephant. It was just a dream and someone's idea but through hard work, investment, partnership and a long term commitment the Spa stands alone as a magnificent facility. Someone's dream became their reality because they did more than dream.
Across the street from where I'm writing this, there's a casino. A casino across from a luxury spa probably makes a lot of sense from a marketing and tourism perspective. On the other hand, casinos are all about luck and chance. A hard core gambler might disagree with me, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of skill or creativity required to win at a slot machine. As I write this, I see people going in and out of the casino hoping to get lucky and win enough money that they could fulfill their dreams
The irony is profound to me. On the one hand, someones dream came true because they invested, worked and made a long term commitment to the future. On the other hand, some people are hoping for their dreams to come true based on nothing but the pull of a handle and the spin of a wheel.
This is not intended to be a commentary on gaming so much as it is an observation on life. There aren't many shortcuts to seeing your dreams come true. It's just a matter of creativity, perseverance and investment. Stick with it and you'll see it happen. I am.
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