PARADISE??

I've gone back into the workforce part time for the summer, and it occurs to me the number of times a day I hear......."You guys don't know how lucky you all are, you live in Paradise!" "We'd give anything to live in Paradise like this!".........and so on.

I guess if you're living smack dab in the middle of Paradise, you just get numb to it.

I guess.

It also occurs to me that the visitors, and there's thousands of them, only see what we want them to see. It's a lot like that all-inclusive vacation to Cuba, where you never leave the resort, in case you might learn how the natives actually live.

I think it's safe to say that we are nervous indeed. We are witnessing global changes so profound that even young people are listening, although I wonder how much impact we are going to have now. It's serious, Paradise notwithstanding, we still need to live. The cost of living is high, in some cases existing is more like it, businesses have erratic hours due to staffing issues, and right now the mosquitoes are holding us hostage in our own homes. We've never seen anything like it, they are relentless, aggressive, sting like hell, just swarming.

But for god's sake, don't put any of that in the "Paradise" brochures.......

I popped in to Souris early this morning, with my list and my good intentions.

I shop the sales, consult my list, and say a prayer........

Had a great chat with lots of shoppers and we all agree that food costs are getting worrisome, and growling about it isn't helpful.

I jokingly said to Georgie M. that I might have to sell my car to pay for a bottle of peanut butter. Now, I rarely eat peanut butter, I make cookies with it once in a while, and Jamie likes it, but do I need it? Nope, it's stinky old stuff, but I bought it anyway. You just seem to need it. Same with ketchup. I rarely use it, but who ever heard of a household without Heinz? Travesty!!!

Anne G. and I had a quick chat, same thing, and we agreed that going to Montague or Charlottetown doesn't make sense. Jamie and I have few needs and we can get what we need right here. But couples with young families, we don't know how they're doing it, it may just get worse, and 2023 will look like the "good old days."

But a good shortening? Crisco it is, can't find Fluffo anymore, and I intend to make pie on the weekend. As Anne Marie and I said this morning, if we want it, we get it, and try not to think about the price. A pie I will have. Anne Marie too.

I think probably with this rain, the local strawberries will likely be licked, but we have raspberries and blueberries to look forward to, can't wait! And the rain will probably help size up the potato crop, much needed.

Well, it might be starting to look a little like Paradise.....

Yes, Prince Edward Island has a lot going for it, if we look. When it's where you've lived forever, I guess you look at it differently.

It's a super safe place to raise your kids, in my experience it sure was. Not too many shootings or murders here, oh a couple, but not the norm, it's hard to get away with that kind of thing here, where your neighbor was probably your baby sitter, your milk man, or maybe your school Principal.

You learned to drive at the age of 12 or 13, on a tractor, or sitting on your father's knee, or steering the wheel, while someone else kept their foot on the gas.

There was work/jobs for anybody who wanted one. But that is changing now too.

You dated people you already knew, and even more importantly, your parents had their whole genealogy down for generations.

The kids could spend whole days on the shore together, playing and getting dirty and hungry. Safe.

Mahar's Woods was another magical place, no worries while there. Safe.

Paradise? Well, maybe there's something to it, I know I have no desire to live anywhere else.

Enough work to enjoy and keep me on my toes. Enough money to buy groceries. And the ability to do those things, well, perhaps that's my definition of paradise.

And a slice of homemade pie.......now that living!