"Thank Your Lucky Strars"

"To Thank One's Lucky Stars - To Be Grateful for Good Fortune"

I started volunteering for "Speak English Cafe" on Thursday nights. It's just as it sounds, in the back half of a locally owned and operated coffee shop people meet to practice their English. These folks may have arrived in Canada a month ago or years ago, but all of them are working to improve their English (as an additional) language skills. My role is to be present and read through a list of questions with them, gently correcting their grammar and pronunciation, but mostly just ask them questions and learn from them. The stories I've heard are both heartbreaking and incredible. From a mom who came from China to proudly see her daughter through University; to a man from Vietnam who's putting together a resume in hopes of finding employment; or a man from Columbia who worked as a lawyer and is now trying to find a job... any job; or a woman from Romania who worked as a doctor and hopes that is she improves her English enough she may be able to pass some tests, to avoid retraining from scratch.
I've had a bit of a rough fall, transitions have that effect on many - myself included. But when I go and spend time with the folks at the English cafe I find I am able to breathe more deeply. I am far from a good English teacher, I go because I like people. I go because I like hearing stories. I like the connection points that unite us all as humans. At some point we've all been proud, peaceful, tired, lonely, afraid, joyful, anxious and so on.
Tonight I sat down at the cafe in the back of the coffee shop and in front of me, on a bright pink peace of paper, awaited the questions for our discussion for the evening. Tonight it read:
"To Thank One's Lucky Stars - To Be Grateful for Good Fortune"
And unfortunately for the first time in far too long I recognized the many ways in which I am fortunate. The very many ways.