Truth and Reconciliation - at last

This country has done something necessary and good, at last, with the publication of the Truth and Reconciliation Report on aboriginal residential schools - the Canadian attempt at genocide. Though, in truth, the Canadian government might have set the policy of removing First Nations children from their homes to put them in hideous schools, but it was the Catholic Church that ran them and subjected the children to unimaginable abuse of all kinds. I've been avoiding reading specifics, I heard some of the stories once and can't bear to hear any more; the level of depravity was staggering. Thank God, this filthy black mark on our nation's soul is at last out in the open.

Okay, how do I follow from that? Except to say that though I gather it's still nearly snowing in Nova Scotia, it's at last beautiful here. Not warm - last night, riding home from U of T after class, I wished I had gloves. But beautiful - and there is one perfect, creamy bloom on my gardenia, with many more buds ready to open, and on the rosebush too.

And I have personal good news: today I went for an osteoporosis consultation with my endocrinologist, Dr. Yu. You could do a good Stooges routine with her name. "Who's your doctor?"
"Yu."
"No, not me, your doctor, who is it?"
"YU!"
Etc. Imagine if her first name was Mee.

Anyway, she's very nice, and she was pleased with me. According to my blood test, my ... wait while I look up my notes ... my beta crosslaps have dropped from 438 to 64! Whatever that means, it's good. I'll have a bone scan to confirm and see her again in November, perhaps for the last time. I said, "Please tell me what I need to do to make sure my bones go on getting stronger," and Dr. Yu said, "That's simple. Keep doing what you're doing."

That means a Prolia injection every six months, lots of yogurt (not cottage cheese, she told me, it actually has very little calcium), cheese and milk - gruelling, all that cheese, but somehow I'll manage  to choke it down - and weight-bearing exercise. Lifting up my hefty grandson and the hefty new baby, that'll keep my bones fit. And all the gardening I need to do this next while before the Cabbagetown Garden Tour on Sunday - that will too.

Scent of gardenia wafting in on the breeze and beta crosslaps of 64: I give thanks for this day.