2013 Retrospective

As the new year approaches, it is around this time that many people reflect on the year just passed and look forward to a fresh start, I am no exception.

There is a lot of sentiment going around at the moment that 2013 would be a year best forgot. For the wildlife shelter and sister trail riding business I am currently working at especially. The combined efforts of a fatal liver disease in black bears and multiple, expensive and damaging horse injuries, means that this year has been pretty rough for the people here. For the rest of the world it has not fared much better. The devastating effects of Typhoon Haiyan, the ice storm that has ravaged eastern Canada, ruining Christmas for thousands, and a frankly indescribable attack on a soldier in my home town of London are just a few of the atrocities that have left the world shaken and full of negativity.

However so much has happened this year to be happy or to be proud about, that has gone unreported on international news, and thus unnoticed by millions of people who don't actively search out this information. For example a 3 year old girl born with HIV has been functionally cured of the virus, speed limits have been put in place for boats travelling along migratory routes of whales in order to protect them, dozens of new species have been discovered all over the globe and the world has a pope that doesn't support the judgement of homosexuality, questions the church for it's outrageous spending and even sneaks out at night to feed the homeless. Despite being an atheist, and generally opposed to the church, I think this is at least a step in the right direction, therefore a positive on my list.

Finally a little closer to home for me, you may remember that a few weeks ago I made a post about a fundraiser at the shelter that had the potential to raise CAN$20,000 thanks to an anonymous donator. Well thanks to the generosity and support of people all across the world we hit our goal, and the Christmas tree in Smithers, B.C is glowing with the light of 800 bulbs that were bought to raise the money. The Christmas period not only gave us a beautiful tree here at the shelter but the arrival of a new little bear, aptly named Tinsel. It was found living harmoniously with a bunch of chickens in a coop, around 30-50lbs underweight and sent to us on Christmas eve. It is so small that the chickens it was sharing food with were bigger than the bear itself.

In some ways 2013 was a difficult year but no-one said life was easy and that bad things wouldn't happen. The key is to embrace it and know that there is always good news out there, even if you have to do a little searching.

Positivity

I'm taking this blog in a different direction this week, there is still very little going on at the shelter right now, other than what I have already talked about previously, so instead I want to discuss something that has been on my mind for a while now, optimism.

Optimism is a topic that I have been thinking a lot about since I saw a quote on tumblr a few months ago that said “There are a tremendous amount of things to be optimistic about”. To my surprise it was a quote by Hank Green, the brother of my favourite author and a vlogger that I regularly watch on Youtube.

I like to think that I am an optimistic person, and I agree with Hank there are a great many things for humans to be optimistic about. I believe, however that the problem is that we are fed so much bad news, we no longer know how to be optimistic. The media likes to focus on the depressing and on the disasters in the world. Disasters can be quantified using statistics. This many people have died in a terrorist attack, this many people have been injured in an explosion, this species will be extinct by this year e.t.c. It is easy to see the negatives when they are presented to us in numbers or easily understandable measurements. However a scientific breakthrough that could lead to the cure for a terrible disease or a new development that could improve the lives of many has no tangible proof of it's overall effects until the finished product has been released in the future. It is all conjecture until that point, and it can be hard for some to get excited about mere speculation. I can understand the reason why society focuses on the identifiable disasters rather than rejoicing in the positives that are yet to occur, because it is simply easier that way.

So even though business at the shelter is pretty slow right now, and the work is repetitive and can get somewhat boring, to echo Hank, I have so much to be positive and happy about. I am in Canada, living in one of the most beautiful areas I have ever seen (I promise, I am working on getting some pictures up!). I get to bottle feed baby moose, stroke a European lynx and work with many other incredible animals. I am living with an extremely lovely and welcoming family who never fail to make me laugh. I am going to be taught how to ride and take care of horses, and go on trail rides and I get to zoom around the countryside on a quad bike, which I don't think I will ever get tired of, it's that much fun. Honestly, right now I feel like the luckiest girl in the world and have no reason to complain about the lack of bears. If they arrive later on in the year, brilliant. If not then I can be happy knowing that they are healthy enough not to need our help, which can only be a good thing.