Look Up

EDMONTON.  What’s the first thing that pops into your mind? 

A big mall?  The Legislature building? Frigid winters? A lackluster hockey team?  Whyte Avenue?  Fat Franks?  

What about astonishing natural beauty teeming with greenery and wildlife?

A resident rabbit

Edmonton has been called an unattractive city.  As a passionate nearly life-long resident of the Edmonton area, I am going to respectfully disagree.  And I’m going to blog about it.

Appreciate the little things, like sparrows.

It has been noted that people don’t spend enough time looking up.  I’d like to treat this one both literally and metaphorically.  Edmontonians spend too much time looking at the sidewalk when they walk (and their cellphones when they drive, but that’s another issue…).  We crouch against spring winds and winter snows, lost in our own minds wrestling with our own lives.  And we rarely look up and outside of ourselves to admire our surroundings.  Edmonton is not an ugly city; it is actually a natural beauty.  And this goes beyond the picturesque scenes of the River Valley.  We have neighborhoods replete with towering umbrella canopies of Dutch Elms, casting shade and cleaning our air.  We have community gardens lovingly tended to grow the fruits (and vegetables) of the earth.  We have abundant wildlife, even in the downtown a birdfeeder brings a delightful assortment of species to our windowsills.  We have the unending Alberta horizon, which gives breathtaking sunrises and sunsets.  We have potted blooms, grown both by the City and by residents, to brighten up our landscape.  And even in the winter, we have a frosty, perfectly white landscape which beckons us outdoors (despite plunging temperatures).

We have all of these things and more, and we don’t see them.  Maybe it’s modesty, or maybe we’ve been taking it for granted, but our city is a natural beauty.  Edmontonians, be proud, and look up.

A downtown sunset