It is mid-August. Today I am indoors, burrowed away from the billowing wildfire smoke that consumes a good portion of British Columbia. What would normally be a cerulean blue sky, is today red and ominous. Gone seems to be the summer season, replaced by fire season. Each generation mutters, “I miss the good ‘ol days.” I do ponder, however, if my generation, that of Gen X, is the last one that can truly say that. Certainly, wildfire, pollution, inflation, all those challenging aspects of life, are present in each decade, but in mine, I can remember winters reaching below minus twenty-five degrees Celsius, every year. Wildfires were minor during the summer, not all-consuming. While water conservation was a summer norm, true drought was rare. Global warming was not a part of our daily vocabulary throughout the nineteen-seventies and eighties.

Today is a day of personal challenge, pushing through this smoke-filled air. The day will come, soon, however, when the air will clear up again and my thoughts along with it, to good times and cerulean blue sky.