Category Archives: Thoughts

Epiphany

Posted on January 6, 2016 | Leave a comment

It is our birthright as human beings. The exquisite, brilliant light beckons us all to the journey. It can be long, frightening and difficult. There will be many trials, sufferings and opportunities for vulnerability on the path. We are diligent in our search. Calling us to be brave, experiences will open us to wonder and potential to share our gifts and talents and receive the same from others. Always kneeling to lessons learned and the presence of a creator. Nothing happens in isolation, for all action reverberates throughout the universe. Learning this, we cannot go home the same way for we are forever changed.

“If only there were a longer time between epiphany and epitaph.”

….David Glaser

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Tagged david glaser quote, epiphany

Relax and Go Lightly It Is Just #oneword

Posted on January 1, 2016 | 1 comment

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

…..T.S. Eliot “Little Gidding”

On my daughter’s Twitter feed she had #oneword for last year, and so did her circle of work friends. I thought it was kind a cool and wondered if I had a word that would sum up my ~~plans, wishes,~~ intentions for a new year. Her word for this coming 2016 year is “light”. I immediately thought of a blogger I really enjoy and envy for his dedication and insight. He regularly blogs on themes and one is:

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

…….Aldous Huxley

I will pass it on to my daughter. I tried to think of a word that might inspire my intentions for the coming year and after two nights of restless sleeping it occurred to me that I have been violating the “11 commandment” of Rev. Paul Dimitoff for a significant time. RELAX

It is hard for me to do. I can’t think the action ‘relax”. In just writing this post my mind sent me careening all over the universe. Starting out looking for the quote from Elliot on “light”, to realizing how much I love reading the Little Gidding which took to me to

“Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always–
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well”

and Julian of Norwich my favourite mystic and then to

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

making me remember Love after Love from Derek Walcott

I have always feared relaxing, to me the word spoke of no action. So for the actions of #relax I will work on balance and equanimity; using #relax to gain back my balance and core strengths, and most of all my time.

I have put my painting of Paul above my desk to remind me!

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Tagged #relax #oneword, aldous huxley, derek walcott, julian of norwich, Rev. Dr. Pavel Dimotoff, t.s. eliot

And Unto Us

Posted on December 25, 2015 | Leave a comment

A Child Is Born. Merry Christmas!

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Posted in Thoughts, What Matters

Tagged A Child Is Born, christmas must be tonight, nativity, the band

We Are Christmas Eve People

Posted on December 24, 2015 | 1 comment

Mary and I are. It’s our favourite night of the year. The darkness of solstice just past, anticipation of the light to come. The quiet, the waiting. Just like Mary. Waiting…. before all the shepherds and angels and people with gifts. Time to have her baby boy, put him in the manger, let the animals sing him to sleep and just relax before all hell breaks loose.

Enjoy Christmas Eve my friends.

Blue Christmas 1959

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Posted in Thoughts, What Matters

Tagged a blue christmas, christmas eve, christmas eve people, nativity

Comfort and Joy

Posted on December 19, 2015 | Leave a comment

‘What we have to do is find the places of hope’

…..Jean Vanier

And sometimes we have to wait for them. In our fast paced world, in anguish, we try to control everything. We want it to be right for us now. Through many trials and tribulations of being knocked on my can or having the “cosmic baseball bat” whack me on the side of the head. I know that God (creator) has three answers when asked, yes, no, and not yet. And what we have to do is wait.

My heart broke open this week to learn that my daughter’s dear friend will be fighting for her life. How I hate that phrase; fighting! It always denotes a winner and a loser. Her cancer has returned. This is not a battle of win or lose. It is about acceptance, waiting and finding the spaces in between of hope. The Christmas carol, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, talks about the comfort and joy that our Christmas season brings. We need both.

Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All other doth deface.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

With all these words, reflecting the seasons wishes, for my daughter, friends and family; they all sit firmly on the bottom word. FAITH.

We can do this, and wait in the spaces of hope….

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Tagged anguish, comfort, faith, globe and mail, hope, ian brown, jean vanier, joy, pray

A troubled world

Posted on November 14, 2015 | 3 comments

Source: A troubled world

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Not An Ordinary Love

Posted on October 16, 2015 | 2 comments

An e-mail from a puppy owner. She bought him from me 10 years ago. The last litter I bred. He was just euthanized after two years of illness. His brother died in December 2013 from prostate cancer. His owners, my niece and her family felt exactly the same way.

“I’m glad you finally have my words about Alfie, it was important to me to tell you. He was so special and his years of illness were a journey of patience and fortitude and unconditional love going both ways which I will never forget. I believe I was visited by an angel in some form and I have to believe I will meet him again one day.”

I sometimes wonder if I am just a kook; anthropomorphizing my animals. I feel the same way about the mother and grandmother of these dogs. I am sure the owner of the now deceased dad of these dogs feels the same way too.

According to the current issue of Oprah

“Few attachments are as heartfelt as the ones we have with our animals – and sometimes those relationships alter the course of our lives.”

People whose lives have been changed forever

Love is love, ordinary or not.

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Tagged anthropomorphizing, bernese mountain dogs, relationships

A Mindful Moment

Posted on October 15, 2015 | Leave a comment

This little guy resonates at the highest frequency for me. His boots, his sweater, his toque, his garden tool, his name “Scout”. What is not to love if you love kids, gardening, nature and mindfulness. I want him to come live in my garden, please?

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Posted in Nature, Thoughts

Tagged a mindful moment, cbc, cbc kids, mindfulness, nature

Happy 150th Birthday Alice In Wonderland

Posted on September 27, 2015 | 1 comment

“And what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversation?”

I love Alice in Wonderland. I loved it as a child, I loved it more as a teenager in the 60’s with Grace Slick singing White Rabbit. I loved reading it out loud; as opposed to Winnie the Pooh, who I abhorred. Curiously, today just happened to be an “Alice” day

It was a treat listening to Exposing the curious world of Alice in Wonderland on the Sunday Edition with Michael Enright on CBC.

Interestingly “After the Bible and Shakespeare, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the most widely quoted book in the Western world. It has been translated into at least 174 languages.”

Michael interviewed, Alice’s granddaughter and David Day the Canadian author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Decoded. It was fascinating.

What was even greater fun was that I was listening in my car on the way to the flea market. My first find there was “The Annotated Alice” 1960 edition. I bought it for a dollar.

I remember playing my first computer game on our brand new Apple 2e in 1983. It was Fahrenheit 451 and to move through the game you had to quote Alice In Wonderland. My daughter was much better at it then I was. I would kill to have that game again. (keep going to flea markets)

My daughter, granddaughter, and I have quite a few versions of Alice in Wonderland. We love collecting new or old editions with different illustrators. The blog Brain Pickings has a post on the best illustrated versions. I just ordered this one .