Last night I went to a cool event called The Art of Noticing Life put on by Sparkfly.  You have to know that anything with a title like that is going to get my attention. And then, when I read the info about the two women who were going to speak…I was all over it.

Samantha Reynolds from Bentlily.com & founder of Echo Memoirs, talked about how a good story often contains four elements.

• Challenge
• Surprise
• Emotion
• Detail

Sam told her story of how writing a poem each day has helped her to really focus and pay attention to her life. And by helping people with their memoirs, she has learned to really pay attention to her key values. She had us do a little exercise that helped us identify our own and suggested that if she followed us around and watched what we did for three weeks, she’d be able to write our lists for us.

I don’t doubt that for a minute. Show me how you spend your time and money and I’ll tell you immediately what’s important to you. It’s that old adage, “Actions speak louder than words.”

There is a very human tendency to wax on about what’s important to us, but if our lives don’t line up with those values, well guess what? Unhappiness. That’s what.

The other speaker was Jackie Ellis, owner and baker of Beaucoup Bakery. Not sure where to start on this one. Her story was everything that Samantha had just said made a great story; huge challenges, unexpected twists, emotional and full of detail.

Especially when it came to talking about baking. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen anyone that passionate about pastries.

I know that kind of sounds like I’m making a joke. I am so NOT making a joke.

I came out of there wondering if I had anything that I could get that cranked-up about… Yes, I have a few interests. In fact, I’d go so far to say that I can get kind of excited about quite a few things.

But Jackie? Jackie was practically flying off the floor in her excitement to describe the perfect croissant. Clearly, she’s onto something because Vancouver Magazine has just voted Beaucoup Bakery with the best croissant in Vancouver.

Just like the woman watching Sally in the clip below, I’d just like to say, “I’ll have what she’s having…”