Here is a not untypical work day:

This afternoon, I biked down to the Cove and sat in the newly revamped Snug, drinking espresso and working on a report. While I was there, I shared a few jokes with a neighbour, bantered with Holly who was proudly making shots of coffee and I surfed the Snug's new wireless service. Dr. Sue walked in and joined me for lunch (after borrowing five dollars for a sandwich - she left her cash in the jeans she wore while volunteering at the recycling centre this morning). We talked about Ontario and Bowen and I found out she has started working one day a week on the island. While we were talking our RCMP Constable Mike strode in and asked me to show him how to start a blog so he could journal his Cops for Cancer fundraising initiative. Our outgoing Corporal Greg was there too, and we tried selling the new cop on the merits of the Bowen Island Taekwondo school.

I made an appointment to see Dr. Sue and she took off after lunch. Finished writing and went up to see Sue, who returned the five dollars and gave me a good referral. While there I talked to my friend April, who also looks after our Taekwondo school and who shares some similar interests with me around groups facilitation and writing.

Biked home where we ate lasagna made with stinging nettles picked yesterday at Cape Roger Curtis.

Everyone does two things around here, and we know one another from circles that intersect with circles. It's these multiply aspected relationships that keep things tight - sometimes uncomfortably so. But in general, knowing that you'll see someone in a few different places makes it hard to hold grudges, be negative or act dishonourably. It just behooves everyone to make small contributions to everyone else's well being.

That's not to say that Bowen is some idyllic community without politics and alliances and gossip and histories. It's just that, in the bigger scheme, we all get along here pretty well, a condition that is supported by the intricacies of social relations in a small place.