The best trips are the ones that make you forget about everything. As I write this welcome message on the long drive back from Texas, wondering what there is to write about back home, I can’t help but feel a total disconnect from Cornwall. Except for the occasional message via Facebook to some of you, and the random comments, very little communication was initiated since our departure.

How I have missed my small town! America is so big and loud! I will be happy to return to the slower pace of our community. However, I have to admit there are things about Cornwall that I have not missed at all.

For instance, I was really happy to get a break from the drama, the gossips and the negativity of certain individuals. It was refreshing not to have to deal with any of that. It made me realize that I have come to spend way too much time worrying, talking about people who are not worth my time, bickering and focusing on bad things. In the last month and a half alone, with the elections, the rink issue and the Frost mini scandals, I have seen more incendiary news than in our 4 previous years combined. We had people sending us email upon email filled with nothing but rumours, accusations and allegations. We heard of various suspicions or corruption, harassment, crime and fraud. Some we published, some we chose not to depending on public interest, but it seemed that the more scandalous the story, the more popular it was. This saddened me.

Going away opened my eyes to the fact that the negativity of it all had been wearing me down more than I cared to admit. Soaking in the love of my family was refreshing and invigorating. Love goes so much further than hate. It’s puzzling why so many of us hate more than we love.

Many people unfortunately take pleasure in the pain of others. They viciously delight when things are going wrong for their peers. Maybe it’s because it makes them feel more alive when everything around them is in disarray and when others are miserable. Maybe it just makes their own pitiful existence bearable.

The law of attraction says that whatever you give your attention to is what you will keep getting more of. In other words, if we keep on focusing on the shortcomings of our community, this is what we will attract more of.

So by that rationale, here is my 2015 challenge. I challenge you, I challenge us, Cornwallites to change the channel In 2015.

Let’s focus on love so that we get more of it. Let’s focus on accomplishments so we get more of those. Let’s lift up our community so we can attract more people. It is unfortunate that anytime Cornwall makes the news, it seems to be for the wrong reasons. Let’s change that in 2015.

Let’s make national news for greatness! Let’s show the world this is the best small town in Ontario. Let’s try to change the culture, not by violently shaking our core, but by gently changing the way we, individually, look at situations and people and handle them. Let’s practice accountability, but point out other people’s mistakes in a loving way. Let’s dig deep and find empathy where it is hardest to find. Let’s exercise patience and tolerance with one another. Let’s admit our wrongs and stop being too proud or too stubborn to do so. After all, we are all human. We are are faulty.

As I begin my 45th year on this planet, I can’t help feeling like there is more to life than this. I want to be immersed in joy, peace and positive vibes. I want to let go of all the stuff that doesn’t really matter. I want to surround myself with people who lift one another up, not push one another down. And I want you to do the same.

Just follow this simple advice: If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing. Some things don’t need to be said.

“I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.” 
― Leo Rosten, Captain Newman, M. D