What I’ve been longing to do for some time now is to go out into nature where the only company present is the trees, the animals, the sky and my own self. Life has its way of moving so fast. A part of me feels that 2018 began not too long ago, yet here we are at the end of another year. Especially when I am in school I feel that the clock turns faster. And December always seems to go by in a blur as classes end and finals hit and Christmas arrives bringing a warm, joyful- and quite often hectic- atmosphere with our families and loved ones. So I had to get away. Without too much time to travel far, I found a perfect place to hike fairly close to my home. It’s called Elk Island National Park. It has been many, many years since I’ve been, and for sure I never came in the middle of winter! I arrived as early as I could and began my trek through the snow-covered forest. Almost right away I spotted a family of elk running in the distance. And not long after that I came across two small
Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the worst poverty that exists. -Mother Teresa Earlier this week I received an email from my faculty, that a young man in his first year of engineering had commited suicide. They also informed us that there was another student, also in engineering, who ended their life earlier in September. I did not know them but my condolences go out to their family and friends. There was of course no explanation given as to why they made this choice, but I wonder if loneliness played a role. Because I have to agree with Mother Teresa, the worst thing in life is feeling alone, unwanted, unloved. We can go through stress and all sorts of difficulty in life, but only for so long as we have someone to talk to and someone who cares and believes in us. A close friend of mine recently shared with me this Ted Talk titled “ The Simple Cure for Loneliness “. I really appreciated the message. And with the somber news at the U of A received this week, I