Take a deep breath… recharge

Over the past few days I have been reflecting on the Spring legislative session. Frankly, the debate on Bill 10 (the income tax amendment Bill for LNG Canada) took a lot out of me.

The work in the legislature continued for the week following the final vote but admittedly I was not at my best. The truth is, the debate was emotionally draining. No question that I found some catharsis in writing about the process and reflecting on the ups and downs of life as an elected official. But once we broke for Easter, it all caught up to me.

When I decided to start publishing a daily blog post, I did it for times like this. So often we see our elected leaders confident and brash. We can feel their ego enter the room seconds before they do. However, we also are a vulnerable little person hiding somewhere in the dark recesses of our minds. This is the essence of the balance I have been exploring in these posts. Elected officials are public targets that are often built up and just as often knocked down. But, we are people. Although we don’t often show our vulnerabilities, we feel them. And for the past few days, I have been feeling it.

It’s nice to be able to stand against the fence and watch Silas play baseball and to travel to Salt Spring to reconnect with a community that, while is so close geographically, feels so far away when I am in the legislature.

These two weeks on either side of Easter provide an excellent opportunity to recharge and rebound. It’s better to turn towards the vulnerability than to try to run away from it, because it’s very fast and, in a long run, it will always catch up to you.