Opinion

Our changeable weather in Alberta certainly does make horse keeping a challenge — one week it is 6C and the next week it is -22C.

It’s the weekend we’ve all been waiting for. No, it has nothing to do with the NHL being back in action. It’s far more important than that. It’s fun hockey. It’s real Canadian hockey played outdoors and played for fun and not for money.

I realize the Christmas season is about done, but it’s never too late to thank folks. Unless you’ve been dead or in Edmonton, you’ll realize every year the Cochrane Activettes operate and collect for a food bank.

Wesley Youth Council had its first official meeting on Jan. 3 and it was a success with people showing up from the Wesley band.

The bickering between the National Hockey League and its players was continuing with no end in sight after days of promise that the hassle soon would be over, followed by periods of doom that the season of 2012-13 would be cancelled completely.

I’ve written a lot lately about the listening heart.

This is the time of year for those dreaded New Year’s resolutions and one that is at the top of many people’s list is getting fit. The credit card comes out and it’s off to the nearest gym.

Since there were no immediate reactions to my suggestion of settling this National Hockey League mess, I decided to take it a step further.

Some years ago my country-singer friend Wayne “Cinch” Arthur wrote and recorded a number that has been haunting my memory lately. “I love the simple things,” the song begins, “The rainbow after the rain, / The smell of the sod on an open field.

The Cochrane Sustainability Plan, finalized by Cochrane’s citizens in 2009, provides 13 interconnected Pathways to Sustainability. Pathway 13 reads: “We build Cochrane on the strengths of our natural and cultural heritage.