The tree stood at the back of Ali’s Garden. He was tall and had once been very strong, sadly the tree was quite old and dried out. That did not make Ali and Andrew love him any less. They had bought him a mustache and spectacles and called him Frank. It did not stop the birds of the air from perching and taking a rest on his branches. It did not stop the squirrels from scampering up his trunk. Even if to the natural eye, Frank was apparently old and dried out, he was quite alive with all the creatures that climbed and perched and sang in his branches. Frank enjoyed his visitors, and from way up there he could see for miles and miles.
Frank could see sunsets and rainbows. He saw storms, lightning and thunder. Some of the things he really loved watching were the squirrels that nested in the smart new house that Andrew had hammered to his trunk. He had watched the squirrel man come and close up the hole where they had been getting into Andrew’s roof. Ali and Andrew loved their garden. They had a sparkling fountain where the birds and animals could come and drink and bathe. They had bird feeders and Squirrel feeders and a big vegetable patch where delicious carrots and green beans and peas grew. Every morning they would come outside and fill the feeders with nuts and seeds for all the creatures to eat.
Frank saw the animals that came to visit the garden in the day and the ones who came at night. Frank lived in Canada. Winters were very long, for much of the year the garden was covered with snow.
The creatures and trees in the garden were preparing for winter. The trees leaves were changing color. The squirrels were gathering nuts.
These are some of their adventures in Ali’s garden. They would love you to join them.

Philip flew back to Judy’s kitchen as fast as his wings would carry him.  He did not want to miss out on his cheese.  He landed and fluffed his feathers with just a quick look at his reflection in the shiny glass window to make sure he looked presentable.   

“Rat a tat” he tapped on the window.  “Back for more Philip?”  joked Roy,” Did you take that last piece to your wife Philip?” Roy said. 

Roy opened the window slightly and slipped a piece of cheese through the window.   

Philip was just about to reach out and grab it when “whoop!” as quick as a wink a monkey’s paw reached out and grabbed it from the windowsill. 

It was Blue, the big male monkey, and leader of the monkey troupe.  He had crept up silently and stolen the cheese almost right out of Philips’s beak.  Philip was angry. 

“Squawk!” he screeched. 

 Blue chattered loudly and swiftly jumped out of the reach of Philip’s sharp beak.  When Philip turned around, he was surprised to see 5 monkeys, 2 with small babies hanging around their bellies. 

The monkeys were very naughty they would sneak into the garage and get into the garbage and throw it around the garage and make a frightful mess. 

Philip could hear Roy calling to Judy to tell her what had happened. 

Judy went outside with a loaf of bread. She tore off some chunks and threw them all around the garden.  The monkeys quickly scampered after the bread.  While Judy was distracting the monkeys Roy quickly slipped Philip another piece of cheese.  He was just in time to gobble down the cheese and see the downy head of their first chick hatching out of the eggshell.    

What a busy day for Philip. 

Philip and Charlotte Hornbill had met each other at the bottom of Judy’s garden close to the stream.  Philip had called, a high-pitched cry that sounded like a baby crying.  When Charlotte saw him, she fell in love with him immediately.  His beak was a lovely bright red and his feathers were as black as midnight.

They found a lovely spot for a nest in the open hole of a big tree at the bottom of Judy’s garden.  They both began to build their nest by getting mud from the bank

of the stream and closing the hole in the tree until it was just big enough for Charlotte to squeeze through.  This was a perfect spot to raise their family. There were lots of insects and fruit and delicious fat gecko’s that would sit on the wall of Judy’s house.

Soon the nest was ready, and Charlotte squeezed through the hole.  She was ready to lay her eggs.  Charlotte laid 3 shiny white eggs in the muddy hole and sat on them to keep them nice and warm.  Every day Philip would fly off and collect delicious treats for her to eat. Her favorite treats were geckos, grasshoppers, and pieces of fruit.

One morning Philip woke up early, Charlotte was hungry, it was almost time for the chicks to hatch and she did not want any of her usual treats.  Philip flew off to see if he could find anything more interesting for her to eat.

Philip landed on Judy’s kitchen windowsill.  At first, he was distracted by his own reflection in the shiny glass of the window.  He admired himself in the reflection.  Philip and Charlotte came from The Crowned Hornbill family and he really thought that was an appropriate description as he admired his handsome beak and feathers.

Something else caught Philip’s eye.  It was Roy making a delicious cheese sandwich on the breadboard.  The yellow cheese looked very yummy.

“Rat a tat!”  Philip knocked on the window with his bright orange beak.  Roy looked up from the sandwich.  Philip knocked again, “Rat a tat, tat!”.  Finally, Roy understood.

“Do you want some cheese Philip?” he said.    Roy opened the kitchen window a little bit and held out a small block of bright yellow cheese.

Philip carefully took the cheese from Roy’s fingers.  He didn’t want to drop it in case the naughty monkeys took it.  He couldn’t see the monkeys around, but you never know, they are as quick as a wink and would snatch up anything they could.

Philip flew back to the nest and popped the cheese through the hole into Charlotte’s waiting beak.   “Just in time Philip, I can hear the eggs starting to crack.  I think its time for the chicks to start hatching!”  Charlotte exclaimed

“Quickly Philip”, Charlotte said.  Rush back to the window and see if you can get some breakfast for yourself.  By the time you get back, you will be able to see your first baby chick hatch.

Philip gave a loud cry like a baby crying, flapped his wings and flew back to the kitchen window to get his breakfast.

There was once a lady called Judy, who lived at the bottom of a very steep driveway in a city in South Africa.

Judy had a BIG, ENORMOUS, GIGANTIC HEART!

There were lots of things that lived in Judy’s heart, lots of people that she loved.  There was a very big section that she kept specially for birds and plants and animals of every kind.

Judy had a beautiful wild garden that stretched all the way down to a little stream.  Lots of creatures came to Judy’s garden.  They came there because there was water.  They came because there were lots of trees and interesting plants to eat, but they also came because creatures know when humans have a big heart and when they are welcome.

These are stories of some of the creatures that come to Judy’s garden.  I hope that you will enjoy hearing about them and that you will find a special place in your heart for all of God’s creatures.

I feel your body,

whisper-thin beneath your bulky sweater.

My arms go around your back

Each vertebra

Your spine is strong.

So  long

you have fought this battle.

And yet you enfold me.

Your smile,

lights up,

and in your eyes

the sun rises.

*Our beautiful nephew Liam lost his battle with leukemia on February 01/2020 after contracting pneumonia and a viral chest infection.  I came across this poem that I had written on his 21st birthday celebration.  Rest well sweet boy.

On July 16^th 2019 Johnny Clegg passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer at age 66.  Johnny was/ is a legend to South Africans the world over.  I read the news the morning after his death.  A deep sadness came over me, it was the end of an era for me. It sparked off a thought, a recurring thought, a motivating thought, that I have whenever someone passes. One that has sparked my “#Thisisyourlife” posts on social media.  The thought is a challenging one. “What are you doing with this one precious life you have to live?”

For those who do not know who Johnny Clegg is or was allow me to enlighten you.

Jonathan Paul Clegg, OBE, OIS (7 June 1953 – 16 July 2019) was a South African musician and anthropologist. His band Juluka began as a duo with Sipho Mchunu and was the first group in the South African apartheid-era with a white man and a black man. They recorded and performed, later in larger formation.  -Wikipedia

 As a child growing up in Apartheid South Africa in the 60’s there were things you just accepted as normal and did not question.  As a teenager in the 70’s, I accepted nothing, I questioned and challenged everything.

 Johnny Clegg was as a musician rising in popularity.  As you have read in the Wikipedia quote above, having a black-white collaboration as a musician was unheard of.  Mixed race gatherings were outlawed at the time.  The group areas act was in effect.  People were segregated by race and did not overlap into one another’s lives.

 I knew this was innately wrong.  We did not have TV until I was 16 years old, the news we did get was carefully vetted and censored.  We were under sanctions from the rest of the world, in an attempt by the world to get our politicians to eliminate apartheid.   I had heard of Nelson Mandela being held as a prisoner on Robben Island.  He and his friends had tried to effect change, they had done so using violent means and the South African government had retaliated violently.  This political unrest became our lifestyle, the topic of every conversation at every gathering.

 Onto this landscape burst this band called Juluka.  It thwarted every conventional norm. The white young man called Johnny Clegg nicknamed “The White Zulu” and his friend Sipho combined languages and cultures in their original music that crossed boundaries and showed us a world that could be possible. 

Eloquent speakers at his memorial service said of him:

 “One day historians will reflect on 20^th and 21^st century South Africa and the impact of Johnny Clegg”;

“He dared us to imagine a common humanity”

 “He will be remembered long after those who thought they were important have been forgotten.”

He fought peacefully and tirelessly through his music for tolerance and understanding.

There is a lot of violence, crime and corruption that still happens in South Africa.  It is no longer for the struggle of equality for all, it’s driven now by crime and corruption, but the efforts of these great men will not be forgotten.

We may not all be Johnny Clegg’s or Nelson Mandela’s, but we can effect change in our own way, in our own world.  We can strive, for tolerance and inclusivity in our own communities.  We can be remembered as being kind, compassionate and loving towards our fellow humans.  We can all leave a legacy of kindness.  I know I am going to try.  How about you?

Navigating Health

I awake early to write.  I have promised my coach, yes, I had one at the start of this.  It may sound pretentious, but I need someone to help me focus my thoughts, there are so many you see.  They tumble like playful children, refusing to be pinned down.   I make this promise, not to my coach, but to myself, that I will write; and dedicate myself to pen these tumbling thoughts onto paper in the hope that they will help someone out there.

I had an epiphany, in the latter half of my 50’s and the resolve grows stronger with each passing year. I intend to live this one precious life I have been given as long and as healthfully as I possibly can.  To drink life to the last drop and not to waste one second.

 I work in the medical field as a coordinator.  It’s my job to try and make our patients lives just that little bit easier in navigating the healthcare system, by helping to book and get to their tests on time.   I deal with a wide range of people, from busy executives to families, pregnant moms, and the older female client.

It is they that steal my heart.  Many have lost their husbands, or they have put them into care facilities. Some have children who live far away, and they are left to their own devices to manage in an ever-changing world of technology.

My second favorite is the older mom, their children are leaving home and heading to university, so they are dealing with empty nests.  Children are a buffer for many things in marriage.  Suddenly they are alone with this man, who may have become a stranger.  No more kids to ferry to and from activities.  They are together, but do they have anything left to talk about now that the children are gone?  Do they even like each other?

Then the tests begin.  The probing and squishing of our bodies to seek out the reason or the causes of the symptoms. The routine screenings that reveal things that hide under the surface of our skins. The strange lumps that appear, thankfully often, benign.  Heart disease rears its head.  We tend to think of heart disease as a man’s illness, however, heart disease is the most common cause of death in men and women in North America.

I have deep gratitude for our healthcare system.  Broken though it may be, it is free and available to all.  I also have deep gratitude for the privilege of sharing a small part of these patients’ lives and helping in even a small way to ease their journey.   

It is to the above readers that I hope to connect.  The older woman, the older mom, that’s where I am somewhere in between the two. I hope to connect because I really want to pass this joyful discovery on to you.

This is not the end, this is the beginning of something new and wonderful, there is ahead of us a journey of discovery, we have only to take the first step and the path will begin to unfold before us, I look forward to your company.

Who I am :

Hi, my name is Margi, I am 58 years old.

I work for a private preventative healthcare company in downtown Calgary, Canada. I also have a  few side businesses which I love.  I am married and have been for 38 years, we have 2 adult sons, 2 daughters in law and 3 grandchildren who are the apple of my eye. We emigrated from South Africa 18.5 years ago with 7 suitcases and 2 growing sons. Suffice to say our life and lifestyle has completely changed. I am navigating midlife and what that means to me. I have become increasingly passionate about strength, mentally, physically and spiritually.

My Intention:

We, the human race, are living longer than ever before. Many of the patients where I work are living healthy active lives well into their 80’s, 90’s and beyond. Think about it .. David Attenborough has just turned 93, Jane Goodall is 85, Jane Fonda is 81, Mick Jagger is 75, Judy Dench 84 and the list goes on and on. All these people making huge valuable contributions to society. At 58 I feel like I am just getting started. God willing and notwithstanding a dread disease, I am ready for the next chapter. I have lost many, many friends to illness way before their time. I feel like it’s my sacred duty therefore to live this one life that I have as fully and authentically as I as possibly can.  At the beginning of 2019, I made a New years resolution to get stronger and to develop resilience. I will, therefore, endeavor to share information twice a month  and incorporate articles that I hope my audience will find valuble and to help you grow spiritually, mentally and spiritually.

I am neither as spiritual giant or an athlete, and I am not famous like the characters I have mentioned above.  I am  passionate in my quest to grow stronger.  Strength, real strength is accessible to normal everyday people like you and I.

This is my journey, I would love for you to join me on it.