Dear Jessica Brennan,

When you’re walking up the street and get a glimpse through the curtains of someone’s home, do you ever wonder what their life is like? How does it feel to sit on their couch or eat their food? What shows do they watch on television? I enjoy this exercise.

When you’re on a country drive and see a farmer out in his field, do you think about him early every morning feeding the livestock? Cows, pigs and the odd donkey. What’s it like to go to bed and hear nothing but the breeze shooshing over a hay field?

We don’t have a dog, but sometimes, when it’s minus thirty degrees in January, I wonder how much you must love something to regularly take it outside at six o’clock in the morning in the summer, let alone in the dark dead of winter.

I picture a few little cottages in my neighbourhood filled with cozy meals and laughter. Some grand homes look like they could have lavish Hollywood-styled parties.

However, these fantasies are all in my imagination because I’ve learned from travelling and visiting people that we are all the same, grand or tiny. The kettle or coffee maker goes on in the morning. Kids still need to do their homework. Groceries have to come into the house. Friendship, sadness, joy, and tears come for us all in our perfectly imperfect lives.

It’s comforting, really.

Love,
Mum xo