Reflections by Rev. Joanne Anquist

It’s been a monumental week for any of you US politics junkies whatever side you’re on.  If you’ve known me a few weeks or several years, you probably know it was a rough week for me!  After the election, I needed a day or two to hibernate to regain my bearings.  

Sometimes, when you have those kind of days or weeks (or years?), you seek out mindless and silly things to keep your equilibrium.  As I was feeling a bit blue, I began scouring my memory for something that delighted me. I remembered my daughter sent me some pictures of the Gopher Museum in Torrington, Alberta.  It’s apparently world famous!

It's a taxidermy museum with Gophers dressed up and staged in different scenes.  I particularly liked the one of the church.  I think it speaks for itself! 

There’s also a great shot of a dinner table that makes me smile.  Love that pun: “Oh Boy am I ever stuffed!”  Someone in Torrington has the dad joke genre down pat!

We all have our own ways of coping.  Mine include Dairy Queen Blizzards and British Crime dramas.  None of us can live in the intensity of life that rolls off the pages of our newspapers, or flashes across the screen every night.  There are times we just need to take a break and free ourselves from the worries that crowd our lives.  

In social media they call this a “timeline cleanse” , a random post by someone who is usually serious, that lightens up the mood, or takes your mind off the cares of the day. These usually involve a picture of a cat or dog in an adorable pose.  Here’s one of our dog, Cookie, that makes everything seem better!  Just looking at her calms me, brings a smile to my face, resets the stress in my body so I can continue with life. 

If I have a motto for life, it would be Find Joy – because it’s always there hiding in plain sight.  Look around.  There’s a smile to be found somewhere!