Posted by MELISSACARR24on
As usual, instead of mailing out cards, I’ve donated to some of my fave charities:
- David Suzuki Foundation
- Fur-bearer Defenders (ongoing)
- Ocean Wise
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 2 years. I hadn’t felt up to doing a newsletter in 2020, so I now have a lot to catch up on. 2021 was a tough year too, but now, looking through my photos, there were actually a number of highlights!
Our most exciting event of the year happened just recently, so I’ll focus on now and work my way backwards. We adopted a rescue dog, originally from Iran and we named her Millie. We feel she’s an “old soul,” so we wanted an older name. My grandmother’s name was Mildred, so Millie is named in honour of her. While we’ve only had Millie for just over a month, she is starting to settle in, and I think she is beginning to understand that she is home and safe. She had a tough start to life (she is likely between 2-4 years old), beaten and starving when a shelter found her. She was so skinny and sick that they didn’t know she was pregnant at the time, so it came as a surprise when they found her with her puppies a week later. Unfortunately, the pups didn’t make it. Sorry, this is a sad, sad story! The good news is that she’s also had some good humans in her life and she’s a survivor. And despite the awful things she’s experienced, she is the sweetest, sweetest girl. She can already give a paw, sit, sit pretty, lie down, and we’re working on stay and recall. We heard that she was depressed in the shelter, not associating with any of the people or the other dogs, but now she plays sometimes. She likes toys that make crinkly noises, and she will alternately chew and then lick them. We are starting to see that our inkling that she would eventually be a “silly Millie” is coming true. She’s still quite hesitant and she gets carsick, but she’s growing and building her confidence, bit by bit. Don’t you just love her eyebrows/lashes, her Yoda ears (they are often flopped closed, but occasionally they show their full glory), and her fauxhawk (she gets it naturally after she shakes her head)?
Working backward, that part leads me to the most difficult part of our year. Of our many years, in fact. We had to say goodbye to both Hana and Kendo over the summer, within less than two months of each other. I won’t go into details other than to say that we miss them every day. And we will honour their memory by making sure that Millie lives her best possible life. We also wear a memory of them, permanently inked onto our skin. I got an infinity symbol with their names blended in. Sean got each of their paw prints.
We had planned to do a road trip somewhere for our annual writer’s retreat, but with Hana’s passing, Kendo’s health declining, and BC’s fires, we decided to keep it close and easy and nested for the week at mom and dad’s, doing a bit of writing in the mornings and local sightseeing in the afternoons. That included lots of farm stuff, from lavender and llama to sunflower and dairy farm. We picked tons of blueberries, went to the beach at White Rock, and perused the quaint town of Fort Langley.
Prior to that, we didn’t really do that much. Partly it was because we spent a lot of time taking care of and then grieving Hana and Kendo. Partly it was me working as much as possible to make up for lost income from 2020. And partly it was because, well, because of COVID. We did spend as much time as possible with our pups, even taking them in pupacks to Capilano Suspension Bridge. We didn’t take them with us when we went to Grouse Mountain though. Even had they been allowed, I don’t think they would have much liked the ziplining and climbing obstacle course we did there! We did as many local outdoor activities with family as we could. And, luckily, Vancouver area is prime for that! And, we’ve continued to do outdoor activities since, now including Millie!
With regard to work, I moved my clinic (again!) in November 2020 and I’m now back to running my own space. While I miss having a team and colleagues with me, I love being in charge of my own clinic, and it’s easier navigating clinic safety for my patients when it’s just me. I feel blessed to get to do what I love for a living from a beautiful space with a mountain view and just a 10-minute walk from home. I love my balcony, where I was able to grow strawberries, rhubarb, various types of lettuce, tomatoes, and herbs. The only trouble is that there is construction on the street right out front as the city is putting in a subway with a station right across the street. That will be finished in 2024 or 2025, so it’s a challenge now, but it will be wonderful when it’s all done! I’ve also continued to be able to do lots of work for my regulatory college, on the Quality Assurance board, reviewing TCM schools, and helping with licensing examinations. And, I was elected as a board member of our biggest practitioner association, ATCMA, so I feel very involved in my profession and I’m grateful for the ongoing connections there, even though it’s almost all online still.
My friends, both ones in Vancouver and my university buddies in Ontario, and I made an effort to meet up online, and though it’s not the same as in person, it’s still great to connect. We found fun things to do together, like online games and taking turns teaching each other something fun or interesting (like making sauerkraut, how to crochet, cooking delicious crispy cauliflower, and more!). I also got to spend a bit of fun time outdoors and relaxing time in Ucluelet with my TCM friend Kelly.
Sean has been thriving with his career too. He was officially hired by a progressive and fast-growing marketing company called Marwick Marketing. He gets the best of both worlds as a contract worker who gets to work from home, but he still gets to be part of a team, and he loves that!
This year Sean has surprised me with a new activity that I never thought he’d be into, especially as I tried to get him going with that for years! Sean is now practicing yoga by video at home 2-3 times a week—more than me! And, now that BC just closed our gyms again, I think he’ll be (we’ll both be!) into doing more yoga! The pic is us goofing around at Halloween and doing yoga in wigs. I’ve also been using my VR (virtual reality) device (Oculus) to workout, doing boxing, HIIT, dance, and active workout games. And I’m crocheting up a storm, so I guess my hands have been getting a workout with that! These are just some of them. I made a granny square sweater with special Hana (flower) and Kendo (sunshine) squares, Florence Nightingale and a bladder with kidneys for my Mom, intestines for my sister, a monster and Among Us for Keanu, Marie Curie for my great niece (not yet given, so surprise!), a pizza blanket and a special scarf for Sean. The scarf is a pattern I created is the sound wave of part of Kendo’s howl.
My family is doing well and I’m so happy we’ve been able to spend a lot of time together. We went to the Vancouver Aquarium and even got pet tortoises and to hold snakes, ferrets, lizards, and a tarantula at another venue. Can you believe I had a tarantula crawling on my face?! My sister and her husband Al are still working from home (i.e. my parents’ house). Keanu started kindergarten in the fall (wow!) and continues to love horseback riding. Lan takes him out for fun activities all the time, so he has no shortage of wonderful experiences. My parents had an amazing playhouse built for him in their backyard and Sean has threatened to take it over. Mom is officially retired, but not really. If you know her, you know that’s not surprising! Dad had some surgeries and is recovering well. We’re all excited to get to include Nana in our celebrations this Christmas—her 101st Christmas! For her 101st birthday, I organized as many family members as possible from across the country to meet up on Zoom with her. We also got to catch up a bit with each other through that and the funniest part was us trying to sing Happy Birthday–so out of sync!
On Sean’s family side, the biggest news is that his niece Sky had a baby this past spring! Her name is Willow and she’s beautiful! It’s hard to believe we are great uncle and great aunt!
And now on to (I mean, back to) 2020!
The biggest event thankfully hit before COVID. Nana turned 100 on February 14, 2020 and we celebrated with family and friends!
Because Tsuruko came out from Japan to celebrate Nana’s birthday, we were able to spend some time with her afterward, so one of the things we did was take her to Grouse.
We also got a few other outdoor and indoor activities in before all the closures from COVID. That included a few more trips to Grouse, doing a lecture at the convention centre, attending a big natural health trade show party, and one of the last chances to see a hockey game in person in 2020 in Vancouver (I think there was 1 more game after).
For 3 months my clinic was closed, which was tough. I love to be of service, to work, and to help people. I love what I do and I sorely missed it. In between scrambling to find ways I could continue to make a living, we filled our days with a ton of cycling–so much cycling! Our fave place to ride to was UBC, but we went all over the place, including longer rides to North Vancouver and Steveston and discovering places we never even knew existed. We also enjoyed rollerblading (got those old blades out again!), supporting local restaurants with takeout food on occasion, and doing online and at home workouts. One of longest lineups was always at Michaels craft store, and I started getting into crochet. I also got a VR (virtual reality) device to do workouts with, and we also had fun playing some games on it too.
The best thing (I think) that I crocheted was a coronavirus named Covey. We found (and took requests for) ways to beat up on Covey. You can see the videos here, if you like.
The highlight of my year was my family. My parents supported me and I found purpose in babysitting Keanu while my sister and Al worked from my parents’ home and my Mom returned to work to help support our healthcare system. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to get to connect with Keanu a couple of times a week on a regular basis. We made crafts (thank you Pinterest!), did chalk drawings, cooked pizza, helped Grandpa/Dad in the garden, did photography walks, played robot, and more.
The scariest part for me during the pandemic was actually worry about my Nana, who because of safety measures understandably placed on long-term care and other assisted living facilities, couldn’t have visitors. With my mom, I created a bingo game with some simple activities that the residents could do that would be healthy, like do 10 leg raises while seated, do 10 marches in place, phone a family member or friend, and think of 1 person you’re grateful for. My family brought prizes for the staff to hand out. I also posted a different bingo game for my patients and I completed it daily myself. A benefit of that is that I still floss my teeth more regularly! Because staff could bring my Nana out onto her 2nd floor balcony for distance visits, I coordinated my family to meet outside (of course, it was raining that day) and do a coordinated matsuri (Japanese festival) dance. Because I had posted that dance on Instagram, I got a message from a music video director in the UK, telling me that he was making a video for a song called “Wait For You,” featuring regular people and trained dancers. Check it out–we could have been stars! Lan, Mom, and I did try to recreate a dance for his video. Unfortunately, we were too late, but it was fun to create anyway.
When I wasn’t allowed to be in clinic, I tried offering online consultations and sent patients some basic tools and instructions for things they could do themselves at home. When I was able to return to clinic, I continued to see one of my patients at home and my bike became my mobile acupuncture vehicle once a week.
Other family activities included going to Grouse again as soon as it re-opened. Sean and I were there on the first day of re-opening and the bears were right there to say “Hello, where has everyone been?” A few weeks later, we went with Keanu and Lan. The bears made another appearance and it was the first time I’ve seen deer wandering around Grouse.
With family and friends, we did what we could over the year, depending on where we were in the pandemic and with restrictions. That included watching our friend David win a Writer’s Guild of Canada award on tv, celebrating David’s 50th bday outside and distanced (the 1st of several distance birthdays), taking Sky’s outdoor yoga class on a rescued farm animal sanctuary, and doing Grouse Grind and pitch ‘n putt with friends Jenn and Cam.
In August, we were able to travel in BC again, so we were able to stay at a friend’s place on Pender Island for our 2nd Annual Writer’s Retreat (we were only able to wave at them from the door, unfortunately, but we appreciated their generous offer!).
It’s bitter sweet now, but I still love (and cry) to see my beautiful pups.
While the last two years meant we barely got to see most of our family and friends, we think about you often and look forward to getting to see you all again soon—hopefully at least some of you in 2022!
Millie, Sean, and I wish you a (belated) Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy 2022 New Year!
