Butterflies Fly Away in Current Events

Virginia brought up Jonah yesterday. She took the long way but asked me if I had a crush on him. I confirmed it. When she introduced us in December, she said she felt the energy between us. She was excited about it when I confessed my little crush on him. I had butterflies the rest of the day. He’s a tall blonde with a ballerina build if you’re into that.

My work had a solstice dinner for the community in December. Virginia had a friend there that she wanted me to meet. This would be Jonah. He works at a homeless shelter. They met at a healing workshop. He is a classically trained dancer. He graduated from my city’s renowned ballet school. He taught dance as a form of healing. He taught himself Anishinaabemowin and Cree so he could serve the indigenous community more effectively. At the solstice dinner, he held a conversation with Virginia’s husband in Cree. Her husband was deeply moved by it. He is a face that the community knows. Virginia knew that I was thinking about volunteering somewhere, she also knew that Jonah was looking for volunteers. He looked terrified to meet me when she introduced us. His face warmed up quickly though. We exchanged business cards. I couldn’t get his smile out of my head for the rest of that day.

So far, I’ve only managed to make it to one of those community walks where we feed the houesless. We also hand out socks, hand warmers, harm reduction, and we pick up trash. I have to go over my lunch break and it has been really busy at the office for my team. Every week I feel so defeated about it because I dress for that walk but never go.

Anyway, Virginia and I have some pretty good conversations. I told her about what I wrote two entries ago about how our community is a smaller sample size where we can see what right-wingers have been saying about how leftism is destabilizing society. The picture is less complicated because our culture never had such ideologies before. We never had things like feminism, gender-affirming care, etc. Our communities are trying to rebuild and unite but these woke ideologies have infected our communities. We are trying to separate ourselves from the West, not catch up to it. Leftism is colonizing us. She wants me to send what I wrote to her so she can show her professor. She believes that he will have a field day with my take on it. At a minimum, I can get feedback on what to add to it. I want to write an essay about it for my future website/podcast.

Speaking of podcasts, my program is going to buy podcast equipment. I mentioned that I would collaborate with Wayne. He is the coordinator of a different youth program and this would meet his deliverables. Virginia overheard me talking about it and she wants in. She is the coordinator of a different youth program as well. So 3/4th of us youth programs are going to have a family meeting on Tuesday to discuss what this will look like. I’m going to get our communications director involved. We will build a podcast situation that we can use, sure, but the intention is to have it available for our participants. Wayne and Virginia have older age groups who are interested in starting their own podcasts so this is a great opportunity.

I am dreading work today. We are taking our kids ice fishing in two weeks. Today, we are taking ourselves ice fishing as a trial run. I hate fishing but I’ll be a trooper. My coordinator invited one of his buddies, who is seasoned at this. I’m sure it will be a fun day. We aren’t catching and releasing. I’m too vegan for this. We are going to fillet the fish and cook it there. We’re all status. I’ll be a trooper. Maybe I’ll learn the art of being relaxed.

Currently, I’m already failing to be relaxed and I only woke up 40 minutes ago. This ice fishing trip is too dreadful for me. I’m going to go hit up the gym to burn off this anxiousness.