“Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life… And make the ordinary come alive for them. The extraordinary will take care of itself.” - William Martin (The Parent’s Tao Te Ching)

When we think of the Church year, we naturally gravitate toward the great seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. These are the dramatic moments of anticipation, celebration, sacrifice, and resurrection. Yet the largest portion of the liturgical year is neither festive nor dramatic. It is known as Ordinary Time, and it may be the most overlooked gift in the Church calendar.

Our modern culture has conditioned us to think of the term “ordinary” as dull and something to be avoided. In our house, my parents did not tolerate the phrase ‘I’m bored’. There was always something to do. However, Ordinary Time is important. What would our world be if it wasn’t for the everyday faithfulness of God, His creation and the helpers around us?

Unlike Advent and Lent, which prepare us for specific celebrations, Ordinary Time focuses on the ongoing life of faith. It is a season not of dramatic spiritual highs but of patient growth. Nature offers a helpful comparison. A gardener may delight in the excitement of planting season and marvel at the beauty of harvest. However, most of the year is spent tending, watering, weeding, and waiting. Growth happens quietly. The most significant changes occur gradually beneath the surface. As William Martin says above, our children and grandchildren don’t need the pressure of being extraordinary, but a mentoring of being faithful with the ordinary.

On Oct. 28, Manitobans will once again elect the people who serve on our local school boards. School trustee races rarely attract the attention given to other elections. Yet school boards are among our most immediate forms of representative democracy.

Before asking who should be a school trustee, perhaps we should ask a more basic question:

What, exactly, are we electing a school trustee to do?

Trustees are elected to govern a school division. They are not elected to run it.

There’s an old saying that even a stopped clock is right twice a day. It’s a good way to describe Premier Wab Kinew’s recent announcement that his government is ending seasonal time changes in Manitoba. From this point on, Manitoba will remain on Central Daylight Time all year long.

Let’s give credit where it is due. The premier got it right when he announced that Manitobans will no longer turn their clocks back an hour this November. In fact, it should have been an easy decision.

Opinion polls show that the vast majority of Manitobans were ready to end the practice of switching their clocks twice a year. This issue was brought to the fore when British Columbia and Alberta recently announced that their residents would no longer have to switch their clocks. Saskatchewan, of course, had never participated in the time change.

With all our western neighbours ditching the twice-annual time change, it made little sense for Manitoba to continue with this antiquated practice. Plus, there’s plenty of evidence that switching our clocks was stressful and led to a loss of sleep. Now we will just keep the same time all year round.