I didn’t start making the calendar until November. I had made no promises.

But one day I just started working on it and before long the momentum had carried me to the printers and I had invested in 40 printed copies of a calendar for my neighbours.

I really didn’t think I was going to make the calendar this year, my energy had been unpredictable, my life force at times diminished. But I am so glad I did.

It is quite a bit of work to make the calendar. There is a lot of picking and choosing, sometimes a photo looks great in a fast glimpse but does not warrant a long month examination. And the format doesn’t always work with the printer. There is a lot of shuffling of photos!

And then there is the cost of the printing, and carrying that cost while I work on the distribution and collection of money. I don’t have a simple distribution or payment system so it is all a bit chaotic. But I thought, one more time!

It is a odd mission I have given myself, an unexpected job that I created. And it is a little hard to explain why I do it. I don’t really make any profit and I am not a professional photographer. I take the photos with my phone. It is the beauty of the moment in our particular landscape that I am sharing.

I began making the calendar in 2021. Our family of three walked every da and I ended up taking a lot of photos of our surrounding landscape and posting them on Facebook to the joy of many Facebook friends, especially neighbours that had moved away and missed their home. And then I created a page on Facebook dedicated to our area.

I posted photos of our area and that is it, photos of the sun catching the golden marshes at the end of the day, the snow glinting off the trees in the forest, or a storm cloud gathering over the sea.

And one day someone innocently commented that they would love a calendar made with the photos from the FB page and I thought, I can do that. Why not? It was 2021, we were all at sea.

The first calendar was distributed in the dark winter of 2020/ 2021. In juxtaposition with the restrictions and shut downs, I was driving down country roads on dark nights and bright afternoons delivering calendars and cheer.

I didn’t make the calendar the next year. I was too stunned by the changes that had been wrought on our world. My heart had been broken up and I needed time to heal.

It takes a leap of faith to make the calendar. It is not a profitable business. It is a gift in a manner of speaking. I have to believe it will all work out.

Sometime I stress that I will have too many left over and sometimes I stress that I won’t have enough for the people that requested them. Sometimes I wonder how I am going to get the calendars to the people!

But in the work of gathering names and finding addresses and making plans to meet people, I end up meeting so many nice people.

This year we are down to one car so I have made some of my deliveries by foot. I have met people in deserted parking lots. I have dropped by houses. I have met people at my door.

I have met old friends who I want to see again and I have met new friends who might end up being walking pals. I have met new Facebook friends who live in Ontario and they have sent their daughter, their sisters, their brothers, to gather the calendar for them.

I feel community and I feel a part of it, and I feel less alone. It has been a gift to me, a gift of an immeasurable value for me.

Over and over I have heard ‘thank you for making the calendar’. It warms my heart and lightens my spirit. I am glad they like the calendar and that every month they will be reminded of the changing beauty of the east coast, but I can’t help thinking that they are thanking me for something else.

Maybe I am being thanked for doing something just for the sake of beauty and shared joy.

And I really fee it now, after distributing almost all forty of the calendars. Community is everything. Knowing your neighbours and talking to them is everything. Making things that have no profit margin, just for the pleasure of sharing it, is everything.

I feel a lifting of spirits in all of us, but it is not a case of people ‘becoming happier’ or returning to our earlier innocent times; it is more of a conscious choice not to believe the bad news and the fear mongering.

It is clear that people know that they must trust and love each other. We are all feeling this consciousness raising, it may not feel political because it is too close to our hearts and our spirits, but that is what makes it so powerful.