It’s January, and I’ve got a tree on my roof. I’m sure at nearly any other point of my life, this would disturb me, but I find myself with a lot of perspective these days and not much alarm. The ice storm ripped though while we were out of town and a neighbour called me with the news of the crashing tree, the 90-year old branch on my 90-year old house.

Safe at my parents’ house for the holidays, I found myself simply glad we weren’t there to deal with it. The neighbour’s husband dutifully stuck his head into my attic to see if the roof was still intact. It appeared to be holding. Good enough for me. I continued my holiday with family and came home a week later. […]