It’s easy to believe that we’re all paying attention and being oh-so-observant.
After I finished watching this, I knew without a doubt that I’d be a horrible witness in a court case.
Funny what we don’t see…on so many levels.
Our House
My four-year old great niece lives in Mission, in a nice rural area, close to the bush and mountains. There are horses in her neighbourhood, dogs and chickens. So when she came to visit at Christmas, it was kind of a big deal.
After coming up the elevator, walking down the hall and being presented with our home, she said with a tone of you’re-not-fooling-me-one-bit, “What kind of house is this?”
She’s right of course. Houses have yards and you can walk out on to real ground from your front door.
Instead, I look out our windows and can watch all the pod-people going about their lives. There’s the guy right across and down one floor who clearly has been ordered to only smoke on the little deck. There is the woman who opens and closes her fridge a zillion times each morning and night. I think she must be a great cook.
There are the two little boys who jump on the bed each morning while their mother gets them dressed, and the apartment, one tower over from us, where the gargantuan TV is never, ever off; actually, that describes quite a few places.
But I love it here. It’s a complete contrast to our Sunshine Coast life, which I also adore.
There are a few differences beyond the obvious. On the Coast I can shake out my rugs. In Vancouver? Not a chance. I think there’s a bylaw on flinging your dirt from one’s eleventh floor balcony.
At our Sechelt home, I can break off a branch and some other greenery from my yard or down the trail or street and bam! I’ve got a nice vase full of nature. In the city? They kind of frown on breaking branches in the park. And anything green? It’s a park.
Coopers Green Park
In the city I can walk 10 minutes to the library that’s open until 9 pm. In Sechelt, I have to drive and the opening hours keep getting cut to a barely functional level.
In the city I walk around the corner and have a ridiculous abundance of groceries and coffee and magazines and people of every nation walking about.
On the Sunshine Coast, I walk and meet all my dear neighbours, watch the eagles, notice if the sea lions are hanging around and pet a few dogs while on my way to get some pretty fine groceries.
In both places, I have friends that I miss the minute I’m in the other location. This, I know, is a fabulous problem to have.
They say that home is where the heart is.
Good thing I’m a Gemini.
Our Vancouver Front Yard
Category: Photos
Tags: authentic life, friends, happiness, healthy living, life, living well, Sunshine Coast, Vancouver 2 Comments
It is an absolutely brilliant-blue day in Vancouver.
I spotted new green shoots coming up in Coopers Green park, where the ducks looked shinier, the kids’ grins wider and the dogs’ smiles even goofier than usual.
There is something about a sunny day that is a complete game-changer. Life holds more promise when the skies are bright.
With the miles of monochromatic grays over the past months, this type of day shines down upon us, precious and perfect…and for this I am truly thankful.
Amen.
Category: Musings, Photos
Tags: authentic life, happiness, healthy living, living well, Vancouver 6 Comments
There are days that have a certain flow to them.
There are other days when, well…they flow not.
I have just spent close to an hour trying to add a photo to this post. This is something I do nearly every single day of the week.
This is not a large feat.
This is, as they say, a no-brainer.
Except. No matter how many times I rotated the damned picture, saved my changes and uploaded and inserted it into this post…it came up sideways. I could pretend it’s an avant-garde style of photo; pretend that I intentionally wanted the Croatian angel statue to be lying down.
And truth be told, I didn’t know what I was going to write about, or why that particular photo was drawing me to put it up, but that’s hardly unusual for how I do these things. And so I persisted.
But here’s the deal. That angel is refusing to stand upright. That photo will not stay rotated come hell or high water.
Maybe the lesson is that the angels are not always on my side? Maybe the lesson is that I still am in abundant need of learning patience? Maybe, like ghosts, angels hate being photographed and are uncooperative.
Maybe there is no lesson at all. Maybe it simply means I need to throw in a different photo. Oh wait. I tried that, they are all refusing to do anything but go sideways. What is going on? Perhaps the lesson is that no photo is happening today. Period.
Which is why you are not seeing a picture of an angel that I took in some church in Croatia. Maybe Croatia needs that angel more than I do. Odds are good.
I guess we all just need a visual rest today. Consider it my gift to you; one less piece of stimuli in an steroidly-over-enhanced-stimuli-laden-world.
I 
Seymour Nightlife
On Saturday night I went snowshoeing at Mount Seymour.
I was there as a media guest. Jane Ince had organized the trip and Carla Mont from Tourism BC was along too.
We would be joining an organized snowshoe expedition that included a chocolate fondue.
I said yes because I knew that both of these women were quick to laugh and it sounded like a trifecta of laughter, outdoor fun and chocolate.
Who would say no to that??
But when Saturday rolled around, it found me tired and wanting a nap. As I rummaged around, trying to find my snow gear, I was regretting the plan. It would be so much easier to stay at home and watch a movie, but I’d said yes, so…
Sure enough, it was cold up there, but still, the view over Vancouver was gorgeous…Once our group got going, I envisioned a headlamp-enhanced jaunt in the snowy woods, followed by a fondue at a warming hut or perhaps the lodge. Soon enough I promised myself, I’d be back home.
We hadn’t been out very long when our guide, told us to stop at the ‘lounge’. Deep in the snowy woods was a snow bench curving around a round snow table. We were handed bum pads for the bench, and in short order, we were soon dipping our bowls of fruit pieces into melty dark chocolate. The smell of cocoa hung in the glittering air.
Chocolate dripped onto my chin and speckled the snow. Lots more of it made it into my belly. The group was great and the snow was magically deep. We tromped like bears down hills and became silent when he suggested we turn off our headlights to walk in the reflected snow light. It was like we had stepped into our own glowing black and white movie. The trees, piled with Dr. Seuss-like snowy shapes, stood sentinel over our trail.
I didn’t want it to end.
On the drive back to the city, Jane summed it up for me.
“I decided,” she said with a very firm voice, “that my New Year’s Resolution was to look for opportunities to embrace joy….too many times, I say I can’t fit it in or it doesn’t work with my schedule. Not any more. I’m grabbing joy from now on.”
Then and there, I added another resolution to my list. In fact, I kicked all the rest of them off the list.
After all, do you really need much more than to open yourself to the possibility of joy?
Category: Photos, Traveling
Tags: British Columbia, happiness, healthy living, living well, Photos, Travel writing, Vancouver 4 Comments
