Happy Mother’s Day to readers in countries where we celebrate our mothers today. I had written a heartfelt Mother’s Day reflection for today, but you’ll never see it. Read on to find out why.
Welcome to the 162nd edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a quote of the week. In addition to my Mother’s Day reflection, this week’s edition looks at the big drought of 2026, a greener greenhouse, and citizens fighting back against data centres.
On my mind this week: An abbreviated Mother’s Day reflection
Today we celebrate Mother’s Day in North America. Unfortunately, the technology gremlins made the heartfelt Mother’s Day reflection I had written for today disappear. It’s a long story.
I’ve been travelling this week. Travelling often involves waiting so I always make an offline copy on my iPad of the posts I want to work on during my trip.
On Friday, as I was getting ready to check out of my hotel, I got a text from Air Canada informing me my flight home was cancelled. They rebooked me on a flight later that evening, but I had 8 hours to kill at O’Hare.
Always being one to make lemonade when life hands me lemons, I decided to take advantage of the delay to finish up today’s post. I found a quiet spot at O’Hare (which is no small feat) and used the time to write a heartfelt post on why I chose motherhood and how it has impacted my life. I was so proud of it.
Lost in the cloud
Sadly, the Microsoft gremlins didn’t want me to publish that post. My rebooked flight was delayed so it was 2 a.m. on Saturday morning when I finally arrived home. After some much-needed sleep, I opened my iPad on Saturday morning to polish off and finish today’s post. To my dismay, none of the edits I made during my time at O’Hare had saved.
Oddly, I wrote two posts during my time at O’Hare. The other one saved, but my Mother’s Day reflection is gone. Lost forever. Floating around in the cloud somewhere between Chicago and Toronto. I looked at my document history and the only revisions I made on Friday that saved were the ones I made in my hotel before heading to the airport. Ugh! Thanks for nothing Microsoft!
An abbreviated Mother’s Day reflection
So this is not the post I had planned (and written) for today. I don’t have time to rewrite it, so I’ll give you the abbreviated summary. Here’s the “Coles Notes” version of my reflection on motherhood…
For many years, I vowed I’d never have children. When I turned 35, I had one of those “now or never” moments when I realized I’d live to regret not having children.
When Laura arrived a couple of weeks before my 36th birthday, my life changed forever. I was now a mom. Three years later, Colleen arrived to complete our family. As Laura said when she met Colleen for the first time, “Now mommy has two beautiful angels.”
Twenty-six years later those two beautiful angels have grown into wonderful young women. I enjoyed a successful career, but “mom” is the most rewarding, challenging and important role I’ve ever held. I love my girls and wouldn’t trade them for anything.
If my original Mother’s Day reflection ever turns up, I’ll save it for next year. Until then, I wish a very happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. Enjoy your day!
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Three highlights of the week
The theme for this week was all about connecting and reconnecting with old and new friends and colleagues. Here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- As I was passing through Chicago on Wednesday, I enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with the fabulous Dr. Vicki Atkinson. Although this was the first time we’ve met in person, I feel we are kindred spirits…sisters separated at birth. What a testimonial to the very real connections we make in our fabulous blogging community.
- After my breakfast with Vicki, I travelled up to the Milwaukee area for a meeting of my professional association. We enjoyed a tour of the Sprecher Brewery and dinner at the Bavarian Bierhaus.
- On Thursday evening, as I was passing back through Chicago on my way home, I had dinner with my long-time friend Cher. She blogs over at The Chicago Files but we knew each other long before our blogging days. It had been about 18 months since we’d seen each other, so it was terrific to catch up.
Things I learned this week
Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:
The big drought of 2026
It’s early May and just over half of the United States is officially experiencing drought conditions, affecting over 150 million Americans. Here in Canada, much of the west is also experiencing drought conditions.
This does not bode well for wildfire season.
(Source: Earth911)
Canadian company invents a greener greenhouse
Food insecurity and high food prices are common in Canada’s north—especially in winter when fresh produce must travel thousands of kilometres.
Dryden Ontario’s AgriTech North has developed a new sealed greenhouse design that keeps out pests and reduces heat loss in winter by 70%. The company’s goal is to bring food prices in Canada’s northern communities in line with prices in larger urban centres.
(Source: CBC What on Earth)
Wisconsin residents defeat proposed data centre
With the surge of AI technology, mammoth data centres are popping up all over the place, impacting municipal water supplies, driving up electric bills, and causing damaging noise, light and air pollution.
Residents of Menomonie Wisconsin successfully fought local council’s approval of a data centre project. Their grass roots efforts have since turned into a statewide coalition to help other communities facing similar challenges.
(Source: Reasons to be Cheerful)
Quote of the week
Today’s wise words come from the late great Gilda Radner. As we honour our mothers, I think she sums it up well.
Motherhood is the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It’s huge and scary — it’s an act of infinite optimism.
Gilda Radner
I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
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