\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by Debbie Ristimaki<\/p>\n
Sometimes a walk in the park, and a sighting of a northern saw-whet owl, helps remind us what’s important.<\/p><\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n
And when I say misadventures, I mean:<\/p>\n
• A burst hot water tank and flood;<\/p>\n
• Having to barbecue Christmas dinner because our stove died;<\/p>\n
• Having no internet;<\/p>\n
• Blocked kitchen sinks, which became a blocked drain which subsequently caused our washing machine to drain onto the floor – yes, another flood;<\/p>\n
• Finally, the motor on our furnace decided it was time to retire.<\/p>\n
In a nutshell, our holiday experiences served as a reminder to focus on what is truly important and what we can control.<\/p>\n
I am not suggesting we could have controlled what happened but we can control how we react, what lessons we learn and, most importantly; what we can do to ensure that we are ‘in the right space’ both mentally and physically. I know that I was likely not in that space and it impacted how I handled the issues.<\/p>\n
How did I come to the realization? A simple walk in Assiniboine Park with my partner and my camera. It was cold. We trudged through snow. We listened to the black-capped chickadees. The nuthatches followed us. We talked. We laughed. And we saw our first owl – a northern saw-whet owl, thanks to the generosity of a stranger who pointed it out to us.<\/p>\n
These are the moments that count – the moments that are truly important. They served as a welcome reminder as we returned home, continued our cleanup and eventually put the TV back on. The difference was fresh perspective.<\/p>\n
So, my word for 2026 is: resilience.<\/p>
I know I am not alone in feeling this, but it feels like the world was turned upside down in 2025 and, sadly, it looks like this will continue into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":600184089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-600184088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-correspondents","category-west"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Debbie Ristmaki","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/01\/14\/keeping-it-all-in-perspective","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Keeping it all in perspective","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/01\/14\/keeping-it-all-in-perspective","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2026\/01\/14\/keeping-it-all-in-perspective"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/3871533_web1_Ristimaki-0114.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/01\/3871533_web1_Ristimaki-0114.jpg"},"articleSection":"Community Correspondents","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"laurieb"}],"creator":["laurieb"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-01-14T08:00:14Z","datePublished":"2026-01-14T08:00:14Z","dateModified":"2026-01-14T08:00:14Z"},"rendered":"