{"id":657,"date":"2011-08-23T08:05:13","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T15:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=657"},"modified":"2011-09-16T16:29:52","modified_gmt":"2011-09-16T23:29:52","slug":"life-doesnt-always-give-you-cherries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/uncategorized\/life-doesnt-always-give-you-cherries\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Doesn’t Always Give You Cherries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Cary Bass<\/p><\/div>\n

As a freelance writer, my days are my own and yet there are forces that pull on me and interrupt the flow of work. Many are welcome interruptions- family, friends, the garden, a bike ride, a hike on a beautiful trail.<\/p>\n

Others, not so welcome. Like yesterday, when I heard that Jack Layton<\/a>, leader of the opposition in Canada died. The news stopped me. He was one of those short guys, who you could say was bigger than life<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wasn’t always a fan of his politics but his tenacity and conviction swayed me in the end. Maybe earlier, I was manipulated by the media or other naysayers who couldn’t trust his ideas and poked holes in his vision.<\/p>\n

Jack Layton was for the little guy, so his ideas weren’t always popular. The little guy isn’t the one who has the money or the power, but Jack wasn’t concerned about sucking up to the corporate elite. He championed the homeless, seniors, and the first nations people who had been abused during their time in residential schools. He was also for the environment. It wasn’t just a political move to gain votes. He practiced what he preached. Before his rise in federal politics, he was known as the bicycle riding city councilor in Toronto.<\/p>\n

And now he’s gone. Life doesn’t always give you cherries, but he was around long enough to leave some sweet taste of politics, which is an amazing feat in a climate of political mistrust. He will be missed, but hopefully his legacy will carry on, and others following in his footsteps won’t forget the little guy.<\/p>\n

He ended his final letter<\/a> to Canadians by saying:<\/p>\n

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we\u2019ll change the world.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Were his closing words, ‘pie in the sky thinking’, or a philosophy that is overdue for the human race?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a freelance writer, my days are my own and yet there are forces that pull on me and interrupt the flow of work. Many are welcome interruptions- family, friends,… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[154,90,33],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jack-layton","tag-life-2","tag-writer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-aB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":664,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/uncategorized\/words-to-live-by-jack-layton\/","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":0},"title":"Words To Live By – Jack Layton","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"28 \u0421\u0435\u0440\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I woke up way too early this morning. Jack Layton's state funeral was on my mind. Yesterday, I witnessed an outpouring of love for a man who`s touched so many lives, as evidenced by all the writing in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. Could he have orchestrated a better final\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 \"Christie Blatchford\"","block_context":{"text":"Christie Blatchford","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/tag\/christie-blatchford\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/nathan-philips-square.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":296,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/more-thoughts-on-writing-rules-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":1},"title":"More thoughts on writing rules","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"5 \u041a\u0432\u0456\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Paula Renaye, author of The Hardlines Self-Help Handbook www.hardlineselfhelp.com had an interesting response to my earlier post on writing rules. As she said I could post her thoughts, here they are: \"It's funny, we all approach a topic from our experiences and our own lens. When I first started writing,\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1293,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2013\/writing\/the-meandering-writer\/","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":2},"title":"The Meandering Writer","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"27 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I don\u2019t know what it is but lately I\u2019ve been having difficulty getting my footing. Some of it has to do with adjustments in the new year. I know, it\u2019s the end of February, but I\u2019m still feeling disorganized as far as my writing life goes. Part of the problem,\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_0126","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/IMG_0126.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7486,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2026\/books\/heroes-ai-and-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":3},"title":"Heroes, AI, and More","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"7 \u0427\u0435\u0440\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, I published my Hearts and Pages newsletter through Substack about some heroes in our midst. One of them, two weeks ago at Vishyvanka Day, organized by the Comox Valley Ukrainian Society as part of an annual event held worldwide to celebrate Ukrainian culture expressed through beautifully embroidered shirts\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/71J-9G9A7L._SY466_.jpg?fit=311%2C466&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1192,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2012\/writing\/ramblings-on-the-lowly-writer\/","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":4},"title":"Ramblings on The Lowly Writer","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"11 \u0413\u0440\u0443\u0434\u043d\u044f, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As I navigate the waters of pitching, writing, editing, revising, and marketing, I wonder about this profession of writing.\u00a0 As a writer, I am\u00a0 expected to work for hours, days, months, years developing my craft, and honing that story, all at my own cost of time and energy. Since I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/250px-Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_-_Gaspar_Melchor_de_Jovellanos.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3133,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2017\/writing\/a-writer-takes-stock-in-february\/","url_meta":{"origin":657,"position":5},"title":"A Writer Takes Stock In February","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"23 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As a writer, I've enjoyed February so far, even though the early weeks brought some disappointment. It was a rough winter by Pacific Coast standards. We normally get little snow, but this year the big snow dumps did some damage. We were lucky though to get away with just a\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/crocus.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/crocus.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/crocus.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/crocus.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/crocus.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}