Archive for » January, 2012 «

There Are Days…

31 Jan 2012 -

 

 

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.

 

 

Category: Musings  Tags: , ,  2 Comments

Chocolate & Snow at Mt. Seymour

30 Jan 2012 -
I P1030591

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: , , , , , ,  4 Comments

Only Breath – A Poem for the Weekend

27 Jan 2012 -

Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

am not an entity in this world or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

From Essential Rumi
by Coleman Barks

Category: Photos, Poetry  Tags: , , , , ,  2 Comments

Slowing Down This Crazy World

26 Jan 2012 -

 

Tulip Awareness

Sometimes life has a wonderful way of delivering what you need.

Or as Mick said,

“You might not get what you want, but you just might find…you get what you need.” 

I know too many friends who have been going full tilt, only to have their bodies start screaming in a way that stops them in their tracks.

Literally, metaphorically, figuratively…you can throw a few ‘ly’ words at the situation, but what it all boils down to is that though the mind will continually tell us that we can do more, more, more (!), the truth is that less IS more.

The body tells the truth of what we are so good at denying.

OK. I’ll quit talking about these friends.

Let’s bring it on home.  It would seem that this has happened to me a few times as well. And each time I promise to listen to my body and treat it like the true friend it is instead of some horse I’m flogging to the finish line.

I’m happy to report that I think I’m getting better at this. I haven’t exactly nailed the whole process but I’m banking on awareness as the first step.

I have discovered a few things have helped me on this quest for a more anxiety-free life:

1.) Walking, especially while talking to a good friend. Pricesless stuff.

2.) Meditation, because it makes me realize how much time there really is in 30 minutes!

3.) Long baths, preferably combined with the above meditation.

4.) Scheduling less, focusing on whoever I’m with as much of my attention as possible; active listening.

5.) Really, really and truly looking at the world around me. Paying focused attention. (This alone has helped slow down the number of times I was whacking off the ends of my fingers. Seriously, it was getting a bit silly).

6.) Fun. Outdoors. Gratitude.

7.) Tech-free Sundays. Like all of the above statements, I fail at this one too. But that brings me to the last point, which really is the summation of everything listed here…

8.) Being kind to myself. How can I show compassion to others if I’m always beating myself up? It all starts at home and home doesn’t get much closer than moi.

So when I miss the mark on any of these things…I give myself a little talk, just like I would to a friend that I care about:

That’s okay, Colleen. Maybe you need a cup of tea and a nap. Then later, you can get up and try again.  

This, of course, can look suspiciously like crazy lady behaviour  - especially if said aloud (which often happens) but…OH WELL.

Maybe by the time I’m ready to leave this mortal realm, I just might have it figured out. Than again, maybe not.

But it won’t be for lack of trying (BUT) with as little effort as possible.

 

 

Category: Musings, Photos  Tags: , , , , , ,  6 Comments

Bonjour Baby!

25 Jan 2012 -

Did You Bring Home the Croissants?

It’s almost done!

We’re booking our flights to France this weekend. Actually, to be fair, I’m using the royal ‘we’ in the previous sentence. In fact, Kevin is the one dealing with the boondoggle called Aeroplan.

Meanwhile, I’ve sent off the email confirming our new home for the months of May & June. We will be living in a little place called Beauvoisin.  It sounds like a pretty small village but we’re only 15 minutes from the bustling little city of Nimes if we need more action.

Booking a place for two full months is quite a departure from our usual program of constantly moving from one hotel to another.

We both tend toward the I-Wonder-What-The-Next-Town-Looks-Like? mindset, which can be fun, but it can also be exhausting. I’m quite sure that during our month in Morocco, we barely stopped moving, clicking up around 6,000 kilometres on that poor rental car.

I’m sure we’ll still do a fair amount of exploring from our new base. But on this trip, we’re going to have a home to come back to. We’ll see how my ADD-twitchiness handles that. But it certainly seems like a laudable plan.

Besides, I think I could get used to coming in that red front door.

Category: Photos, Traveling  Tags: , , , , , ,  10 Comments
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