Welcome to Autumn 2023. We are looking ahead to this time of transition, the shoulder season between summer’s bounty and winter’s time of reflection.

We continue to face significant challenges here in Owen Sound and throughout Grey-Bruce. Each day seems to bring a new tsunami of issues and events large and small for us to endure. Susan Estabrooks, owner of London’s excellent Mandala Book Shop, recently passed along this quote from Octavia Reheem’s book Pause, Rest Be: “There is no way to apply existing logic here. There is no sense or meaning to make. There is no normal to idealize and place on a pedestal. There is only the ground you are sitting on and even that feels like it is crumbling. Sink into the ground. You are a seed.”

To that end, I hope we’ve given you some clues on these pages on ways to to move forward with intention and hope. We’re not just rebuilding our community; we need to establish new ways to connect and be. We live in such a creative and beautiful region: there’s so much local opportunity to make music and hear music; see live theatre; write your own and enjoy others’ poetry and fiction; make art and enjoy art; hike, swim, boat, walk, and run in nature; and more. Take a class at GBArts or Intersections; enjoy a great meal at one of our excellent independent restaurants; and definitely take part in the Wellness Walkabout: a celebration of health and wellness in downtown Owen Sound. And, to get you started check out our Heritage Downtown Walking tour. Remember, or learn.

- Maryann Thomas