Art is everywhere, if you choose to look.
Lately, as the weather becomes a slightly more pleasurable each day, I am taking the opportunity to get back out on the streets of Toronto to observe what really happens here.
Last Thursday, on the way to an appointment, I was fortunate to notice something I had never seen before.
Just about any day you’ll find Ross Ward hunched over on Yonge Street tending to his art. The ‘Birdman of Toronto’ has been a fixture on these streets in various locations for well over a decade, and during each day he crafts, and sells, palm-sized birds.
Once only a hobby — this is now more than whittling — Ward carves out shapes of common birds from reclaimed wood. There is always a piece in progress, and always a small flock for sale on his concrete workspace.
Perhaps in our day-to-day journeys, we don’t look close enough at all the people. We don’t often observe enough to see art just happening here and there on our landscape. I’ve wandered this street how many times and only last week did I notice the man. I saw him again on the weekend.
Appreciating the beauty of his work, I bought a bird as a gift for someone . . . or maybe a souvenir for myself to one day remember my time in this city.
Couldn’t we all use more memorable hand-made art?
A Sacred Day
I say their names
because I have a daughter.
I say their names
because I am human.
I say their names
because I remember.
Anne-Marie Edward
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Lemay
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz
Annie St-Arneault
Geneviève Bergeron
Maryse Leclair
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Sonia Pelletier
Annie Turcotte
Maud Haviernick
Maryse Laganière
Michèle Richard
December 6, 1989.
École Polytechnique.
The Montreal Massacre.
This is a sacred day.
Just as we pause on November 11, to pay respect for those who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our way of life in times of war, we must stop whatever we are doing later this day to pause and reflect on those whose lives were taken away, on this day.
There must be silence.
These women did not volunteer or ask for this violence. They lived with it every day, as many do now. Sadly.
My heart goes out to the families, friends, partners, and loved ones who grieve for these significant women.
I grieve with you.
deep peace
12/06/2020 j.g.l.
2 replies on “A Sacred Day”
Oh so poignant JG?. I didn’t know anything at all about this Montreal tragedy. My memories of 1989 are colored by end of year high school exams. Plus Tianamen Square & the fall of the Berlin Wall etc. However it’s never too late to remember the 14 females tragically massacred on 12/6/1989??????????????.
A day forever etched in my heart.