three things

January is a strange month. Perhaps it is because it is on the other side of many holidays. Perhaps it is because the days are finally getting longer and things are starting to sprout in the garden. Perhaps it is the start of a new term. 

I thought I would start this blog with a snip of a poem by George Barker, which starts:

January jumps about
in the frying pan
trying to heat
his frozen feet
like a Canadian.

Dear VIU Community,

I'm excited to announce that the next phase of VIU’s strategic planning process has arrived.

From November 2 - 27, we would like to have your feedback on the first draft of the plan, which was created from the community input we received last spring and summer. Since then, we have been hard at work, collating all of the feedback, releasing the What We Heard Report, and putting together this first draft of the plan.

I’ve been spending some time on campus since the start of term and noticed, when wandering around, that I’ve been running into more people. Often this is on my way to the Mount Benson Market to grab a morning coffee, or around 2 pm for an afternoon snack. I highly recommend the sandwiches, the charcuterie tray, the salt and vinegar kettle chips, and the amazing people who work there. I’ve also run into a number of folks at the VIU Students’ Union Pub and I highly recommend the quesadillas, Greek salad and poutine.

I wanted to take a moment to wish all of our students and employees a happy, safe and healthy Thanksgiving long weekend.

I know this year’s Thanksgiving may look different from the traditions many of us usually observe and some of us are having to find new ways to celebrate. This has given me pause to think a bit more deeply about how grateful I am for so many things in my life – my family and friends, my beautiful garden, and the work I am privileged to be involved in.

My apologies for not blogging over the past few months, but the events since March have made time for reflection and writing scarce. Further, “Zoom Fatigue” sapped most of my creative juices. The best I could do over the summer was go back to first principles, which for me is collaboration and music, which is why, with the Communications and Public Engagement team, we did manage to put out some summer tunes.

So here we are – my first blog of my second year at VIU. 

I am writing this from my home office, which is above my garage. It is a bright and sunny day and I am happily perched among the Douglas fir and cedar trees that line my driveway.

“Beware the ides of March” (Julius Caesar, Act 1, Sc.2)

We are about halfway through winter, and so far this month we have experienced snow, fog, rain and blinding sun. And yet signs of spring are everywhere. I see crocuses popping up, Canada geese flying overhead and there are buds on the trees. The air is softer, the sun is coming up a bit earlier every day and if March is the month that roars in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, I can hardly imagine what lies ahead.

Welcome to 2020! January is always a time for reflection, and given the year, a time to look back on the last decade. So, what’s happened during the last decade? Well, for me, the last decade brought a lot of personal and professional change (new jobs, new locations, new friends and family members), making it hard for me to describe the decade in a coherent fashion. Or maybe the description for the last decade was change – making change, living through change and adapting to change. 

So it’s December, a time to take stock of the year and all it has contained.  This is also the first column I’ve written in the five months I’ve been at VIU. The time has flown by and before we know it, we’ll be in the heart of convocation season. But before that happens, let me start by telling you about my blog.