Category Archives: beauty

Feeling that warm Canadian glow

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canada

Our love for our country runs deep.  We, as a nation, bleed red and white and this morning I felt the vibration of a country celebrating in unity as the Canadian Men’s Hockey team took Olympic Gold.  The West coast rose at 3:30 am (or stayed up) to watch the puck drop at 4:00 am PST and the wave of Canadian spirit undulated across the nation.

During these winter games we battled and we fell.  We picked ourselves up and congratulated those who bested us.  We honored those who carved the way for new Olympic challenges.  We watched the families and friends of our Olympians cheer on our Canadian athletes in Sochi while we cheered from home.

We did not just celebrate our victories.  We celebrated our efforts in every sport and paid tribute to those willing to represent the best our country has to offer.  We felt the pain of those who came up short of their goals but we also felt their Canadian pride in their attempt to be the best.

We battled with the world, we won with pride and we lost with dignity and grace.  We leave Sochi with the same sense of self and the same Canadian values we had when we arrived.

An entire country will go to bed tonight proud of our Canadian athletes, their coaches and their support staff.  We will appreciate the thankless hours parents spend teaching these children to learn from defeat, to lose and to win graciously and keep striving to be the best they can be.

(image credit: karenfron.com)

I’m a Raggedy Ann in a Barbie Doll world

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I have never been a slave to fashion trends, apart from those few unfortunate years in high school when big hair and “preppy” collars were all the rage.  Wanting to fit in as a teenager led to unfortunate wardrobe choices and spectacular photographic evidence that seems to keep reappearing.  Even the fires of Hell could not burn those outfits from my memory.  (Somehow I think the pictures and the negatives would survive incineration as well.)

80While the above image was taken from sweirt.com and does not do my teenage wardrobe any justice, I’m sure you get the general idea.  Nothing says 80’s fashion like big hair, neon and leg warmers!

After leaving high school and finding myself in the “real” world, I came to the realization that I could care less about fashion.  I was happier slipping on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and sliding my feet into some loose-fitting sandals.  While the girls around me spent hours teasing their hair, applying make-up and picking just the right outfit, I would be dressed and ready to go and waiting for them to emerge from their cosmetic cocoon as a beautiful painted butterfly.  I admired their dedication, I just didn’t understand their obsession.  Give me a tube of mascara and some lip gloss and I’m set.

I’m sure there were moments in my impressionable years that I wished I was more like a Barbie Doll.  Now that I can look at my life from an adult perspective I realize the world needs Raggedy Ann’s as much as it needs Barbie Dolls and I’m happy to be one of those Ann’s.

100 Word Song – I Saw Her Standing There

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I was perusing the mystery section, nothing really grabbing my interest, when I saw her.  The library was as reticent as expected but there was an aura of absolute silence beyond the normal quiet.

She hovered amidst the Dean Koontz novels, showing no interest in one particular book.  I feigned any enthusiasm and continued down the row of books, not taking time to make contact.

She still understood me. She would have put money on the fact I would be in this section.  Even after her passing, she still knew my vices and could anticipate how I would avoid reality.

~~

Written for the 100 word song at My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog.  The song choice this week is “I Saw Her Standing There” by The Beatles.  My best friend passed away almost 10 years ago and I still feel her presence in the strangest places.  This prompt made me think of her.

Love lost, such a cost – Trifecta Challenge

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hands

He used to reach for my hand in the dark.  Even though he was asleep, his fingers would seek mine and become entwined.  He was an angel on Earth.  Now he sleeps eternally.

~~

(image credit: fineartamerica.com)

Written for the Trifecta Writing Challenge:  This week we’re asking for exactly 33 of your own words about love gone wrong.  But we’re asking that you not use any of the following words:

love
sad
tears
wept
heart
pain

100 Word Song – Tones of Home

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I wave goodbye but nobody waves back.  They gather as a crowd, looking at me but not really seeing me.  Music plays in the background.  Melancholy harmonies, tones that remind me of home, hover in the air creating the mood that was anticipated but is never welcomed.

I linger and watch their sullen faces and I struggle to block out the abrasive light.  And so I wave goodbye again, hoping that just one person will glimpse my spirit and wave back.

The light seems to warm the longer I look into it.   Nothing holds me anymore and I fly home.

white light

~~

(image credit: rapgenius.com)

Written for the 100 Word Song at My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog.  This week’s song is Tones of Home, by Blind Melon.

100 Word Song – Route 66

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R66 03

(image credit: outpostusa.org)

I have to admit, I am loving the 100-Word Song Challenge at My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog.  This week, after experiencing some unexpected snowfall, Lance and Leeroy have chosen “Route 66” as this week’s song.  Here is my 100 word interpretation.

~~~~~

There was something charming in the way he pursued me.  If my soul were a road map he would have traveled from one coast to the other exploring every nuance of the highway that led through the heart of my existence.

He stopped to admire the things he would see only on this road.  He fondly recalled the route that brought him to me, it was the road less traveled but the road that was meant for him to follow.

It is now a direction we pursue together, an open avenue to our future.  It winds us into our reality.

Her chosen path – Trifecta Challenge

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The decision made so long ago,

for her child to be given a better life.

She watched her from a distance,

hidden in plain sight.

Never being her mother, only a vague reflection.

or_l

(image credit: Thomas Leuthard)

~

Written for the Trifecta Challenge – On to this week’s Trifextra challenge.  This week we’re asking for 33 of your own words inspired by the following picture.  If you use the picture on your  blog, you MUST give proper attribution to the photographer by providing a link to the photo, not just to Trifecta.  Failure to comply will eliminate you from the challenge.

Good luck and have fun with it!

Showing signs of happiness

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A few days ago I attended a business meeting and encountered a woman I haven’t seen since I left my old job last May.  Our hotel properties used to be side by side so we had a fairly regular occasion to bump into each other but I haven’t seen her since I began my new job.  We exchanged the usual pleasantries, took our seats and the meeting began.  After an hour of brainstorming, the session adjourned and we were able to chat a little more and catch up.

We, of course, commiserated with each other about the roller coaster of weather we have been experiencing this year.  We talked briefly about how the hospitality business has been for each of us this season and then the conversation changed completely.

She looked at me quizzically and said, “I’m not sure if this will come out the way I mean it to, but your face looks so much lighter.”

It was an odd statement, certainly, but one I have been hearing more frequently.  It wasn’t in reference to my pallid winter flesh color nor was it meant to infer anything about weight loss.  She simply observed my happiness.

happiness

(image credit: myvintagejewelbox.com)

When she had seen me last, I was working at a job that I no longer enjoyed.  The stress that I faced each day was etching itself into my face and I looked, and felt, like a different person.  It was a tough decision leaving that job because it had once been a place I considered to be a second home and my fellow employees were like family.  When that home was bought by a corporation, the feel of my job evolved into something foreign. It was no longer a warm and inviting place to be and, although I had to leave some great people behind, I made the tough choice to get happy again.

I was fortunate enough to be able to make the decision to be happy, and if my face is any indication, I made the right choice.

A Word a Week Photo Challenge

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I haven’t participated in this challenge for a while but A Word In Your Ear has a great challenge where she opens a page of the dictionary and chooses a word.  You can opt to submit a photo, a poem or story, whatever genre you choose to help you describe the word.

This week the word is undulate.  As soon as I read the word, I was taken back to one specific moment in my youth that I have never been able to do justice with words.

lights

(image credit: ecopedia.com)

We lay on our backs on the dock at our cottage staring into the beauty of the night sky.  The world seemed to stop to allow every bit of life’s energy to be absorbed by the Aurora Borealis.  The lake was a sheet of glass and, while the ground lay breathless, the green hues undulated against the backdrop of the atmosphere and reflected off the water.  Although we were perfectly still, our bodies felt like we were surfing on the movement of the Northern Lights.

This photo, although beautiful, does not do justice to that night sky so many years ago but it does give you a glimpse into the beauty that we had the chance to absorb.

Greeting the morning

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Snuggled in my bed at home,

the blankets pulled up tight.

Morning sun begins to rise,

the Earth is bathed in light.

Shimmering snow blankets the trees,

the sun caresses each flake.

The new day yawns to shake off the night,

The Man in the Moon takes a break.

From under the warmth of my duvet I emerge,

ready to start anew.

Adventures and new memories laying in wait,

and dreams I am anxious to pursue.

I open the door to welcome the morn,

the beginning of the day to unfold.

The hesitation of my dog confirms my suspicion,

Holy Shit-balls, it’s cold!!

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