Grateful for Safe Spaces

Today, once again, I found myself feeling grateful for the "safe spaces" that have been made accessible to our family over the course of this COVID-19 pandemic.  Over the past year, various spaces - from forest acreages to backyard swimming pools to a country cottage - have been made available to us through the goodwill of family, friends, and neighbours.  

Today we experienced this generosity once more from a neighbourhood family who offered us unlimited access to their very large outdoor ice skating rink.  After homeschooling, the boys and I walked over to the rink and they skated gleefully for the better part of an hour.  They especially enjoyed shovelling off the rink (rather haphazardly), we made up obstacle courses and they practised tricks like skating on one foot and spins.  We timed our visit for the middle of the afternoon so any other neighbourhood kids would still be in virtual school and we had the huge rink entirely to ourselves.  It was magic.

If you are someone who has granted our family access to a safe space at any time over the course of this pandemic, I wish to reiterate from the bottom of my heart how incredibly grateful I am for your generosity.  While I love our farm, the ability to get outside and experience other places, without needing to worry about everyone wearing masks or keeping the boys socially distant from others (they are absolutely horrendous at this), is truly a godsend.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.