Sunshine begins the healing process

For at least four months after Wendy died I was in deep mourning, grieving for her, suffering from a condition not much different from quite severe clinical depression. As the days got perceptibly longer and sunnier with the approach of spring, my spirits lifted, I began to recover, for the first time felt able to think positively about the future and make plans for it. So next week I start weekly classes of Tai Chi, that gentle, graceful Chinese form of exercise; in early May I will be taking part in a three-day writers' retreat, where I hope I will learn something about memoir writing, or what the author running the retreat calls 'creative non-fiction' which means inventing dialogue or conversation that approximates to what was actually said at the time. That's one way to enliven my dull and boring narrative of my life. My other main aim is to weave Wendy more tangibly into the fabric of my story, bring her back to life in the pages of my story from 1955 onward. My third impending agenda item is a visit to Karen and Pradeep Kumar in Hamilton, with a side trip to see a couple of plays at the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake. Finally there are three chapters to revise in Public Health and Ecology, a lineal descendant from Public Health and Human Ecology, this time to be published by Oxford University Press; my friends Frank White and Lorann Stallones are writing or have already written the other chapters (this would be first on my priority list if I were still a workaholic as once I was, but I have a few months grace to finish this). I can't say that I face the future with optimism or great hope in my heart, but at least I feel ready to carry on for a while, sundry annoying minor ailments notwithstanding.