     In a somewhat ironic start to a new year, I've been doing a lot of looking back. Between exhortations from sources as diverse as the radio and our church pulpit, the message is clear: "Here's wishing you all the best in 2016". "Let's look forward to what the new year holds".
         Having said that, and in direct opposition to all that great advice and best wishes, I've spent the last several weeks looking back. Here's how it all started: as I prepared to write my regular monthly column for British Columbia's major agricultural publication, I decided to take a look at how farming has changed over the years. Why not start at February 1943, I thought? After all, that's the year I was born.
         It was wartime then and the ration book was part of everyday life. Through those wartime years a vigorous campaign aimed at promoting national nutrition was introduced as well as individual controls on the price, production and distribution of everyday foods. I remember Mom talking about those things.
         Mom passed away a few years ago but another journey back in time began for me this week. In sorting out boxes long neglected, I came across more than a dozen of her diaries. Reading them has been a journey fraught with emotion - laughter at my brother's anniversary gift to them of a garbage can, tears at the untold back story of other family events and reminders of siblings' engagements and marriages.
         Looking back can sometimes be the greatest incentive to move forward. Mom would never have wanted life's pain to be used as an excuse to quit; God knows, there was no better example of persistent faith and determined faithfulness than she!
         "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
         Thanks, Mom.
