I can’t add anything to this. It speaks volumes.
Category Archives: challenges
Eternal optimism while staring at your balls
3 CommentsThere is a local golf course that is always the first one to open every season. They even have a count down sign on the highway so driver’s passing by can share their enthusiasm for the start of golf season. It is a nice reminder, a beacon of hope that lurking under the mounds of snow lie tiny blades of grass waiting to be kissed by the warm, Spring sun.
I drove by that sign today and the magic number on the sign is 25 days to golf. I almost drove off the road I was laughing so hard. As I collected myself, I began to scan my surroundings. Mounds of snow still shroud anything that may slightly resemble a golf course and the temperature on my car thermometer was -12C.
Maybe the optimism of the course owner is misguided. Perhaps he knows something the rest of us do not. But I’m willing to bet that the sign proudly stating golf season will start in 25 days will say the same thing 25 days from now!
Say yes to a dress, say no effing way to those shorts….
19 CommentsI was thinking I wanted to lose a few pounds, you know, shed the extra winter weight that inevitably comes from too many lethargic nights on the couch when it was -38C and the wind was whipping by my windows at 60 km/h.
It’s tough to get out of a comfortable routine, especially when you fully comprehend the new routine will require getting your arse off the couch and making it do some exercise. I start each day with the best of intentions and then somehow the bad habits are happening before I even realize it.
Facebook has been a bit of a thorn in my side lately. Were it not for posting my blog to it as frequently as possible, I would probably eradicate its evilness from my life. But then I saw this in my Facebook news feed……
….possibly the best motivational tool for weight loss I have seen yet. While it is highly improbable, no, completely preposterous to imagine I would even attempt to dress like that, let alone go out in public, this glaring reminder of shrinking clothing versus expanding fat cells slapped me in the face.
Next time I feel the need to snack on that late night popcorn or make that relatively innocent cream sauce for my chicken this image will gallop to the front of my cerebral cortex and blind me with its perceptual awareness. Salad anyone?
Dare to dream BIG
5 CommentsDreams come in all forms. The one I had last night was a prime example of all of the outside forces in my world coming together in a blend of incongruous ideas. But dreams keep life exciting. Dreams are the wishes we make for ourselves and hold close to our hearts.
I have several dreams – some seem absolutely attainable and others seem light years from my perception of reality but I hold those dreams as close as the wishes that dangle at the tips of my outstretched fingers. Those delusions of grandeur make me strive, not only to succeed but, to make my life as close to my image of perfection as possible.
Dreams give us motivation. Dreams make the mundane tasks of everyday life seem that much more bearable. Dreams can transport us from reality into a glimpse of a microcosm so far from our daily routine that the mere idea seems absurd. But those dreams give us hope. Even though those desires convey the impression of being impervious to our concept of life as we know it, we still need to maintain the assumption that dreams come true. The strength of our imagination makes dreams become more plausible and leaves a door open to a world beyond the essence of our day-to-day life. Those dreams make us breathe.
My dreams have no restrictions. I dream small and I dream big. The image below is one of my big dreams and one that I cannot seem to let go. I want to own a Morgan. I have had an infatuation with this car since the late 1980’s. I can visualize it in my driveway. I can picture what I am wearing when I drive it. It has gone from passion to craving. Oddly enough, I was looking through some old family photo albums and came across a picture of my dad standing in front of a Morgan on one of his trips to Florida. I had no idea this obsession was genetic!
(image credit: retrothing.com)
I will never give up this dream, or any of my dreams. The intensity I feel when I think about this car only fuels my desire to make this dream a reality. Many of my dreams may not come to fruition but that will never quench my desire to make those fantasies become real. The day I live without a dream is the day I stop living.
Never give up on your dreams. The day we stop thinking we can have something is the day we give up. Dreams give us hope. Dreams give us a drive to succeed. Dreams make us realize that all things are possible if we only choose to believe.
You wear what you eat…
6 CommentsMy friend Sandra passed away tragically in May of 2003. It was such an extreme shock to get the phone call that she never made it home from her vacation in England. She had been infected with the Streptococcus bacteria that rapidly turned into the Flesh Eating Disease. In a few short hours after getting on the plane to return home, she was gone.
Her laugh still echoes in my head sometimes. She had a wonderful sense of humor, a biting wit that matched well with mine and she was just fun to be around. We both loved to cook and there were many food experiments done in our kitchen when we shared an apartment in Halifax. We enjoyed cooking together so much that we eventually started a small catering business.
Recipes were followed or created, heavenly smells wafted under our door into the hallway and many bites were nibbled in order to perfect those recipes. As we noshed on the fruits of our labor, scattered bits of food would inevitably fall onto Sandra’s chest. She was a well-endowed woman and she always referred to her cleavage as the “continental divide” because everything would end up there eventually.
As I was making my coffee this morning, I casually looked down at the sweatshirt I am wearing and noticed the stain directly at the entrance of MY continental divide. I heard Sandra’s laugh before my laugh passed my lips.
Some memories will always find their way back to the present and those are the ones you never want to forget.
Giving myself permission to feel joy
18 Comments“Find the place inside where there is joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” ~ Joseph Campbell
This past weekend was more painful than I anticipated it would be. Saturday was the one year anniversary of my mom’s passing and the anguish of losing her took me by surprise all over again. I awoke at the exact time I received the dreaded phone call last year and spent the remainder of the day secluding myself from society, friends and family.
It was a much-needed hibernation from reality and time that allowed me to reflect on all of the happy memories and not just dwell in the sadness. I was able to observe many moments of silence and stillness. Those quiet moments gave me permission to initially grieve but then to take that grief and smother it with thoughts of a happy life spent with my mom and my dad.
After recognizing my mom’s passing, the ninth anniversary of my dad’s passing occurred two days later on Monday. As it happened on Saturday, I awoke at 2:15 am on Monday, roughly the time my dad passed, and spent many peaceful moments remembering the good times with him.
Grief can be consuming but joy has a way of quelling the overwhelming emotion and allowing happiness to rise to the surface. It is difficult in times of sorrow, especially when remembering a loved one who has passed, to be able to bring joy to the moment. But those who have left us would want us to feel nothing but joy. My parents would be sad to know that I am still grieving and not embracing the spirit they had when they lived.
It is that force that drives me to find joy in my sadness. It is their energy that wills me to move beyond the grief and remember their lives in a happy way and not cling to the heartache I feel in their absence. I will always grieve the loss of my parents but I will also begin to give myself permission to bask in the joy I feel having been a part of their lives. Hopefully, in time, I will be able to carry that joy into my future and the joy will burn out the pain.
Live long and prosper – fiction
8 Comments
Space was not the final frontier and neither was death. It had been weeks since he had left his physical body and yet he knew his life was far from over. He didn’t know how to classify the realm in which he currently existed. It wasn’t space, it wasn’t Heaven, it wasn’t Purgatory and it certainly wasn’t Hell. It simply felt like what he imagined it would be like in the womb. The sounds around him undulated and he felt like he was floating.
If he could not recall certain parts of his life, those memories slowly returned as if they were on a trailer reel of a film. It all seemed highly illogical but it was happening and he could not ignore the scenes as they played in his head. Familiar faces drifted to the forefront of his mind and he knew them all by name.
The face that lingered the longest was of a man he had known well. William. His name was William. As the details of William’s face became more pronounced in his memory, he became overwhelmed with emotion, something he had done his best to conceal throughout his life.
Images rushed by now, tumbling over themselves to make room for others and, as the last pieces seemed to fall into place, the movie of his life began. He watched his childhood, he witnessed himself as a young man falling in love for the first time and he watched as he tried his first cigarette. He turned away and the movie paused. That moment frozen on the screen was the beginning of his end.
He focused once more on the show and watched the legacy he helped build, in his personal life and his career. The words he uttered many times on-screen came true in more ways than one in his life and, even though this life no longer existed, he would still live long and prosper in the minds of those who loved him.
Written for the Grammar Ghoul Challenge – In memory of Leonard Nimoy the word prompt is illogical and the visual prompt is a scene from Star Trek II – The Search for Spock. I was extremely sad when he passed. I spent many of my childhood years watching Star Trek and, in many ways, Leonard Nimoy reminded me of my dad. LLAP.
Learning to laugh at yourself
13 CommentsI hope you will all indulge me this week. March 7th looms and I would like to keep as many happy memories as I can at the forefront of my brain. Since my mom can no longer comment on what I post, her ethereal embarrassment shall be something that will hopefully make us all smile a little. Some of my best memories are of the funniest times in my life – the memories that made me laugh until I cried and that same laughter that made my mom wet herself. This is one of the memories I love.
We have always been a family with pets. Dogs have been a strong presence in our lives and in the early 1980’s mom and I would walk the dogs down the back road that was close to our house. On one of our walks, our Golden Retriever, Brandy, decided to take it upon himself to walk our Lhasa Apso, Misty. He took her extra-long leash in his mouth and proudly sauntered down the road, not looking back. Only mom and I could see the leash wrapped around Misty’s body and, when there was no slack left in the long leash, Brandy dragged Misty down the road backwards for about half a kilometer. That moment wasn’t just funny, it was absolutely hysterical and mom and I laughed so hard she peed her pants.
Now, in the 80’s velour was all the rage. Mom sported many matching leisure suits. They were comfortable, they were stylish, and they were surprisingly absorbent. But the variation in color could not hide the fact that my mom had peed her pants. After we collected ourselves, we made our way back to the house. We had a crowd of friends over and, knowing that, Mom was in stealth mode, maneuvering out of anyone’s peripheral to sneak in the back door and head for the laundry room in our basement.
She quickly changed her outfit and headed back up to the living room, thinking she had averted humiliation. What she had NOT counted on, was that her traitor of a daughter had already broadcast the episode to anyone who would listen and had even thrown in some play-by-play action in slow motion. Not only was I laughing but everyone in the room joined in, even my mom.
That day I learned one of the greatest lessons she ever taught me, even if by accident – if you can’t laugh at yourself, you will miss a great deal of enjoyment in your life.
Things are not always what they seem
1 CommentAs the nights began to get colder and the days grew shorter, a non-conforming sparrow decided not to fly South for the winter. The winds shifted, the snow began to fly and the mercury dropped to frigid levels. Realizing the decision not to go South was horribly wrong, the sparrow reluctantly began its journey to a warmer climate.
The elements exploded from the winter sky and battered the poor bird. Soon ice began to form on its tiny wings and the sparrow could no longer remain in flight. The wind and snow volleyed the bird in mid-air and the sparrow fell to the Earth, landing in a barnyard. Its heartbeat was weak and the sparrow faced the inevitability of freezing to death in the vast expanse of farm land.
No sooner had the bird given in to its undeniable fate, when a cow wandered dangerously close to the dying bird, lifted its tail and crapped on the sparrow. Stunned by the irony of being shit on while it slowly died, the bird began to feel warm. The heat from the cow patty was melting the frost and the bird began to feel its heart pounding stronger and stronger with each beat.
With growing warmth and a sudden optimism, the bird began to sing. It celebrated its narrow escape of impending death. It basked in the glory of being to continue its journey South and it laughed in the face of fate itself.
The sparrow’s song grew so loud that the bird did not hear the approach of the feral barn cat. Investigating the sounds, the cat circled the bird and pounced, clearing the cow patty and carrying the now deceased bird back to its lair for a late supper.
There are lessons to be learned from every story. Everyone who shits on you is not necessarily your enemy. Everyone who gets you out of shit is not necessarily your friend and if you are warm and happy in a pile of shit, keep your mouth shut.
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This was a joke I remember hearing when I was in high school. I embellished a bit (no surprise there) but I think the lessons are still worthy of sharing.
Uncovering the wrong letter in the word team
5 CommentsWhen you work with people for a significant amount of time, you not only become a real team but, you become friends. You get to know the nuances of each team members character and you learn to blend your strengths with theirs. They help to balance your weakness and you do the same for them. It becomes an unspoken rule that you have each others’ back and treat each other with the utmost respect because you have developed a real bond at your job.
But, unfortunately, teams change. Members of the group that you have come to know and admire often move on causing the dynamic in the team to become drastically altered. People tend to cling to the familiar faces expecting them to be their closest allies but that is not always the case. The feeling of working together suddenly changes and it now feels like you are working for the team and not with the team.
When the faces of the group are substantially different, there is usually a member of the original group that will try to use that reality to their advantage. Any allegiance that existed has been replaced by their valiant effort to get ahead and shine brighter than the other employees. They insinuate themselves into the role of the “a-hole” and become the only “i” in the word team.
I have met many of these “i” people. Usually the ones who had assumed this new identity shocked and disappointed me. We had worked well together but when the opportunity of advancement presented itself they didn’t think twice about using me as a wrung on the ladder of their ultimate success.
I’m happy I was able to move beyond those people. I didn’t dwell on their negative traits but focused solely on my positive traits and moved forward. I chose to enjoy the hours I spend at work with a new team that appreciated my contributions. I chose to be a part of a group where I could thrive and where my efforts would not be a stepping stone for that one person who didn’t know how to properly define or spell the word team.
polysyllabic profundities 