Better Living Through Chemistry

I was raised by a Physicist-Mathematician and a Biologist - so it’s not entirely surprising that I believe in Science, fact-based decisions, empirical evidence. (Please, please, please don’t send me a FaceBook “article” about how adding mushrooms, coconut oil, and rosemary to a diet, or eliminating gluten, cheese, and margarine, will cure Dementia. I appreciate you thinking about Doug, but rather than forwarding those “scientific breakthroughs!!” to me, I would be happier if you performed an anonymous act of kindness. As of this moment in time, there is no cure for Dementia. Thank you.) 

I am also a fiction writer, so I strongly believe in the power of imagination. Though I don’t think, two years ago, I could have imagined Covid, or how it would change the world, or that in June 2021 both Doug and I would have received our first and second jabs and would be as fully vaccinated as possible against it.  

March, 2021

June, 2021

Post-Covid life will never be the same as pre-Covid life (she writes, stating the obvious) - but the vaccination is helping me see a way forward: yesterday my sister was able to visit Doug for the first time since March 2019. Our nephew, our nieces, my brother-in-law, and my Mum will all also be able to visit him. #family for the win

It’s been hot and sunny where I live this week; when I water my garden rainbows appear, arcing between the spray of water and the seedlings in the earth. (“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero) 

It feels especially fitting, given that June is Pride month. Rainbows everywhere. Love everywhere. Doug and I went to the Gay Pride parade in Toronto several times; we both loved giving out ‘Mum hugs’ and ‘Dad hugs’ (yes, yes, pre-Covid, when hugs were risk-free) (and yes, yes, even though I am not a Mum and he is not a Dad). #love for the win #hope for the future