Springtime in Canada

...or at least here on the Lower Mainland of the West Coast. 

While I admit that the tulips are store-bought (though raised on Vancouver Island), the forsythia brancches are ones I brought in from outside. 

Today marks the Vernal Equinox, when things are in a kind of balance, as the sun is above the equator, making the hours of daylight and darkness equal--the day we refer to as the first official day of spring. 

After this winter, spring is more than welcome. Snow. Cold. Disruptive news. Balance sounds like something that's very badly needed. 

Up and down, round and round

Trying to stay 'up' on what's happening in the news has become crazy enough to just about give me a kink in my neck. 

At least I've finally found a term to help me make some sense of it: yo-yo diplomacy. 

Reactions from this side of the border have been nearly as up-and-down as the pronouncements coming out of the mouth of the person who's currently occupying (and I use that word intentionally) the White House. Ontario's premier has waffled on threats as extreme as cutting off power to three northern US states. Our premier here in BC has put forward a proposal that would give a kind of 'War Measures' powers to his government. 

I suppose the action of a yo-yo is ruled by the laws of physics. If only there were some kind of law that might help control the current up-and-down chaos. 

Rights. Equality. Empowerment.

It was nearly a hundred years ago that my grandmother got a job as an assistant to the sheriff in the city where she lived. No doubt--besides her brain--the tool she relied on the most was a typewriter, not unlike the one above which remains in a place of honour in my office. 

Not a lot of women worked outside the home back then, but she was a single parent--and heck, with four kids to feed, she needed an income. 

Oddly, for that era when women mostly stayed at home, my other gramma had a paying job as well. She worked in a bakery which, lucky for me, meant I was privileged to get fancily decorated cakes for birthdays and other special occasions. She also had four kids, along with a husband who was unable to work. 

On this day, International Women's Day, when we celebrate women and our many accomplishments, it seemed important for me to remember these two brave women from my family who preceded me, with a legacy I am proud to claim. As for those words in the subject header, they constitute the theme of this year's IWD, and I can only hope that soon they will actually be true for all of us who identify as women.