September 5 Day 7 Food for My Soul #traveljanetstobie
Last night before crawling into bed, I checked my emails and found a message from sister Sharon –
no daily blog, Jan – and a horrific pictures from winnipeg showing massive floods. I know you are to be in winnipeg this weekend. Should we worry? is all well?
The weather channel showed me pictures of flash floods with cars driving through a foot of water. Another God-incident, I thought. We chose not to push it through to Winnipeg. We decided it would be more fun to stop at supper time in Kenora. Thank you God for the prod and that we listened. Life happens often that way for me. We make a choice that helps take care of us rather than saving money or time. The wisdom of that choice appears later.
Today we had a short drive to Winnipeg so we didn’t leave Kenora til 11:00. We gained an hour on the journey, so arrived in Winnipeg just after lunch. We’re in a great hotel right downtown, the Humphrey Inn and Suites. They let us check in early. There’s a warm swimming pool which we enjoyed. We walked to “the Forks”. 54 acres of shops and skate board park, and peace garden and art gallery and so much more. When my back gave out we took a little river cruise. Ian our boat operator gave us a running commentary on the history of the area pointing out the buildings and areas of interest. He spoke with great pride about his city. He was obviously having a good time not just mechanically repeating something he said hundreds of time. The cruise took us on the Assiniboine River past the forks and up the Red River. I felt like I was riding in history. It was great.
My back rested we walked some more. The highlight was the art gallery. We bought a card to frame. The painting it replicated wasn’t there. It shows an open book with the pages floating into the air and becoming white doves, for me symbolizing God’s Spirit. For me the picture (painting) speaks of my writing ministry. My goal is to open my heart to God, so that God’s inspiration can fly to people through my writing. I am going to write to the artist and ask permission to put the picture on my website.
We ended up at the Esplanade Riel Pedestrian Bridge and had supper at the restaurant located right on the bridge. Our waitress, like our boat operator, was special. Sewet is from Ethiopia, via many other places. When Tom told her I was a writer, and handed her my card, her face lit up and she responded with, “This was meant to be. I hope one day to write my story.” At that point she gave us a shortened version which concluded with her receiving her citizenship papers three months ago. We talked and shared email addresses. She’s a woman of the world and a young single mom with a fabulous attitude of gratitude for life. She was an inspiration for us.
We’d talked of going dancing tonight but are just plain tired. There will be another evening for dancing. A few minutes ago, I heard the staccato banging of fireworks. We’re on the sixth floor. Our window gave us a front row seat for the baseball fireworks, about fifteen minutes of fabulous colours flying in the sky. At one point there was a silver shower, and a ribbon of blue stars that wended it’s way up into the sky for about two minutes. The display was a treat.
We’ve so much to give thanks for tonight. My soul has been fed with people like Ian and Sewet, art work, and the natural beauty of two famous rivers. We are truly blessed.
