Life is good. The sun is shining, tulips are up and the premier and municipal politicians appear to have reached an understanding about how they will talk about amalgamation.
Rural Saskatchewan can breathe again.
For some, life has been on hold since the Garcea and Stabler reports recommending drastic forced amalgamation and the government, via the municipal affairs minister, appeared to agree.
In our community, we had a couple of economic development initiatives that didn’t stop in the wake of the upset but certainly slowed down, all of us with the thought in the backs of our minds, “Is it worth it to go on?”
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It is and it will.
To help the effort, a small group gathered in the Legion Hall basement a few nights ago to listen to Vickie Newmeyer of the Meridian Community Futures Development Corporation extol the virtues of entrepreneurship and a positive attitude toward opportunities in rural Saskatchewan.
We long ago realized that white knights are few and far between and if we’re going to do anything we have to do it ourselves. Sometimes the task seems unsurmountable; so much to do, so little time, so little money.
Aha, said Vickie. Think positive. “I’ve never seen someone not get a business started because of money.”
She reminded us that we have to “think outside the box.” She also cautioned us that “if the horse is dead, get off.”
Good advice, that.
Some other one-liners: Take advice from the wise, calculate the risk, have a can-do attitude, dream and create your own destiny, and finally, look for opportunities, find a way to make it happen and, for heaven’s sake, just do it.
We didn’t just listen. We blew up balloons and let them go, taking negative thoughts with them as they flew across the room. We colored pictures of bunny rabbits clutching carrots and learned to share, or not, our crayons.
We drew pictures using three circles, a triangle and a quarter moon, none of us quite achieving Vickie’s vision of a happy face, but making some interesting configurations.
All of this was in the way of making us think and analyze and realize that we all work and communicate differently.
Did all of this help our economic development efforts? You bet it did.
I’ve added a limp black balloon and an unfinished picture of a rabbit to my bulletin board just to remind me that negative thoughts are to be pushed aside and, by working together, we can achieve. A good lesson for our committee, but also for all of beleaguered rural Canada.
