Jackie and Jillie have a way between them of keeping us grounded. Whenever we speak now, it's in fairly hushed tones, tones of disbelief and grief. The news is bad and it only gets worse. We've always known -- from painful first-hand experience, not to mention everything that has happened elsewhere during our lifetime -- that Jews have a very special place in the opinion of an astonishing number of people with whom we share this globe. Yet nothing prepared us for the public onslaught of hatred and venom exuding from a great public demonstrating against a country that had just suffered a catastrophic loss of life at the hands of a terrorist group.

 

Yesterday, while I was doing the house-cleaning, shaking dusters I'd used in the interminable dusting process of everything I could reach in the house, familiar colours, bright and unmistakable caught my eye down the street. We have neighbours that have hailed from all parts of the world. Several years back we met and welcomed a young man who had just moved to the street, in a house about ten down from ours. It was obvious he was from the Middle East, and I pegged him for a Syrian. At a later date we also met his wife and his two young children. Friendly, albeit distant neighbourly relations ensued.

 

After all, 60 years earlier, our family doctor had been a Syrian, a man we trusted with our family's health, a kind and knowledgeable physician whom we all respected. That was then, and that man was not the people who have more latterly immigrated to Canada. There are so many Middle Easterner-originated hyphenated-Canadians resident here now, that mosques abound. Those colours that hit my eyes were from a flag festooning the vehicle of a visitor to our neighbour's house; a large 'Palestinian' flag.

 

I envisioned that vehicle and the man driving it attending one or many of the countless 'pro-Palestinian' rallies taking place all over Canada. Rallies that make no secret that those attending loathe Israel and by extension Jewish-Canadians, since their practised calls say as much. It's an eerie feeling to witness such evidence of a mental state that afflicts so many with antisemitism. These rallies have given Jew-haters a reason in their minds, to publicly celebrate their hatred of Jews.

 

That we have two little dogs who depend on our attention and their inclusion in all we do is a boon for our sense of balance, helping us by diverting our focus to matters other than being surrounded by hate. Our daily forays with them out to the forest to enjoy trekking through woodland trails is a vital part of the quality of life we enjoy here. Their need for attention from us is invaluable in forcing us to recognize the need for normalcy.

 

 

 

Irving finished wrapping all of our old and treasured 'stone' garden urns and statues. Only the air conditioner and the barbecue remain to be securely wrapped against winter's onslaught. The kind of freeze-and-thaw cycles that produce such destructive potholes and cracks in roadways in this northern climate by the time spring rolls around wreaks its havoc on our old urns as well; they become, with age, susceptible to cracking, and we want to preserve them for as long as we can.

 

It has been dreadfully cold these past few days with night-time temperatures below freezing, so that's none too soon. But unlike yesterday's wind-blustery, rainy and cold day, we have sun today, warming up the atmosphere as much as it can since it remains cold, albeit less windy. We went out earlier than usual for our afternoon ravine hike through the forest with Jackie and Jillie.

 

 

We hauled thick woolly sweaters over their freshly-shorn haircoats to ensure they kept toasty-warm in the challenge of the cold, despite the sun's capacity to filter through the leaf-barren tree canopy now that most of the trees are free of their foliage. Leaving us grateful for the fact that this is a mixed forest of both hardwood and softwood and ample presence of conifers ensures that we can at least enjoy some green aspects in the colour-diminished landscape.

 

 

We'd had to leave earlier for our hike to make certain we had ample time to make our 2:00 p.m. appointment at the local pharmacy whose services we've used for the past thirty years. The same thing happened several weeks ago when we made appointments for our annual updated flu shots for the coming winter. This time it was for the last of our COVID shots since it was six months since we had the previous one, back in May.

 

Amidst all the dreadful scenarios being enacted all over Canada now with an increase in antisemitism driven mostly by the horrendous attack in southern Israel near the border with Gaza when Hamas terrorists unleashed a barrage of barbarous slaughter on Jewish civilians living in border towns, villages, kibbutzim and military bases were targeted for the murder and abduction of Israel Defense Forces soldiers, there are some sane areas that give hope.

 

While Jewish students attending schools and universities have been subjected to harassment and abuse by Canadian Muslims attending those same institutes of learning, and antisemitic attacks have taken place at synagogues in the wake of ongoing pro-Palestinian 'protests', the social media accounts of some prominent Muslims who decry both the Hamas atrocities and the wave of increased antisemitism hold out hope for sanity to ultimately prevail.

Just as an aside, the pharmacy where we received both our flu shot weeks earlier and our COVID updated vaccine this afternoon, is owned and operated by Muslims. It was Muslim pharmacists who administered our shots, people we've known for decades. We have no reason not to trust their professionalism and integrity. And they have no reason not to trust that we are as safe in their hands as would be any others who seek their services.