The Pelee Project: One Woman's Escape from Urban Madness

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

A car accident while rushing to work in Toronto led Jane Christmas to
reconsider her lifestyle. Deciding it was time for a sanity break, she
put her career on hold and opted for a three-month winter retreat. This
escape took her and her 10-year-old daughter away from the chaos of
their big-city days to the slow-paced environment of Pelee Island.

Pelee, a tiny island in Lake Erie, is home to fewer than 200 year-round
residents. With the tourists and summer residents gone for the season,
Pelee became a friendly, caring community. Here Christmas was able to
examine her personal values and re-establish her priorities. She and her
daughter found that they loved the freedom from the competitive
pressures and frantic pace of life in Canada’s largest city. A walk in
the snow, waiting for the school bus, sharing pot luck ... such simple
pleasures, completely devoid of glitz and mile-high price tags, filled
their days with satisfaction.

An obsession with fashion and a bad case of compulsive consumerism were
quickly replaced by “soul rejuvenation.” Instead of dwelling on how
to acquire more and more objects, Christmas let her mind be opened to
the “tiny miracles that occur every day” in nature and in
relationships with neighbours.

The book is a memoir of a stint at “spiritual boot camp,” with a
minimal touch of religion. The author’s sense of humour and ability to
laugh at herself are married with enough detail and portraits of local
characters to keep the tone light.