Chronicles of the Plague Year #5

I walked across to Salsbury Park at lunchtime, sat on a bench in the sun for a while, fed peanuts to some crows. There was just one other person in the park and she stayed on the opposite side to where my bench sits.  The squirrels were napping. It was quiet, deserted, peaceful, and decidedly odd with no children playing.

After about ten minutes, I strolled back and noticed that the neighbouring townhouse complex is having its monthly landscaping work done today.  I find it hard to believe that having someone else come cut your lawn, trim your bushes, water your plants, etc. etc., is an essential service.

The days seem to get quieter.

Night Music: Strange Fruit

Pesach Sameach 2020

Gibran’s The Prophet on Death

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Grandview 8th April 1920

“Vancouver World” 19200408, p.14

 

The Electric Shop opened on Commercial in 1918. Harry Rees, the owner, lived in the apartments at 1828 Commercial. In 1920, Rees joined forces with William Krause, a wiring contractor and they moved the shop to 12 E. Hastings.

 

All previous Grandview 1920 clippings