After beginning what I thought was going to be a rather uneventful day off, I received the news that I had been Freshly Pressed!! I’ve been dabbling in micro-fiction and poetry, and pouring my heart into some of my posts hoping to connect on a deep level with people and my effort has been rewarded with a great pat on the back. Thank you WordPress for giving us the freedom to be ourselves and explore our inner voices without judgement. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet some great friends along the way!!
Category Archives: doing what you love
More than merely notes on a page
9 Comments“Without music, life would be a mistake.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
I could live the rest of my life without television, but take music from me and you may as well send me into my next incarnation. Music has a way of taking what was wrong and making it right.
After a long day the right song choice is the consummate escape to find my way back to myself. Closing the car door in the office parking lot, starting the engine and letting that perfect song selection caress my mind is such a welcome close to any hectic day.
When you find inspiring music and let it seep into your soul, it’s much more than just listening to a song. Those notes and harmonies can take you out of your current existence and transport you to a new state of being. The songs become so much more than notes on a page, they become transcendent.
I have a very eclectic compilation of music that I enjoy and, each day that I want to peel back the layers of my hectic life and just relax, the song is never the same. My diverse taste allows me a greater freedom in finding that right choice to help assuage the tension of every day life. Those varying notes in that array of genres is the portfolio of my relaxation and escape.
I don’t ever defend my vast taste in music, I embrace it. I am never at a loss for a tune that will suit the moment I am in, and that gives me a contented feeling. My music can match any mood and any circumstance, and I will never be afraid to admit the extreme sides to my play list.
Recently that melodic portal of liberation has been opened by the beautiful tones of four soulful voices provided by The Tenors. Music will always have a soothing quality but when you find the right blend of melody and harmony the result is an emotionally soothing journey. My goal is to meet these four Canadian boys!
Music is much more than just notes on a page. Music is a memory. Music is a feeling. Music is the collection of notes at the heart of your soul.
The Commish is back in the house
6 CommentsI am a Canadian who admittedly can’t watch the CFL although I am a football fanatic. The culmination of my love of football was derived from years of watching the NFL. My parents were Hamilton Ti-Cat fans, but I was always drawn to American Football and my love of the rules of the National Football League.
Hail Mary has much meaning for me, although I am not a religious person. The tension on the field, the true grit of play and the excitement of the game has a hold on me that I have not yet been able to explain. And I will vehemently negate any arguments that I watch the game for the tight pants. I know the rules. I know the game. And during the NFL season, I eat, sleep and breathe football.
Once the season begins I yearn for Sundays. If I am not working, I am comfortably ensconced in my living room watching the pre-game shows until the 1:00 kick off. I can spend 10 hours in my living room yelling obscenities at my 46″ monitor and loving every second of the game. (I’m sure there are meetings for this!)
My love of the sport may have morphed into a slight obsession. I took over a football pool about 10 years ago that had 15 participants. Last year we topped the participation with 65 people at $250.00 each for the entry fee. It was a busy season but time that I truly enjoyed spending creating spreadsheets and announcing the winners of each week. Having 65 people picking 13 to 16 games a week is like having a second job, but one I would not give up. My nickname during the football season is “The Commish” and it is a moniker I hold onto with great pride.
I have just sent my first email of the year to round up people to participate in the 2013 / 2014 football pool and I feel like a kid waiting to go to Disneyland. The spreadsheets are set for another year and pre-season is around the corner. The Chargers roster is pumped and ready to do me proud this year. My jerseys are hanging in my closet and I eagerly anticipate the kick-off to the Hall of Fame Game on August 4th.
I am about to put the laptop to bed and watch The Replacements. Although Keanu Reeves is not the best actor in the world, it is one of my favorite football movies and I need to get back into “Commish-mode”. It’s 4th and 1 on the 1 yard line and I’m about to take the snap. Hut, hut.
A much needed change of pace
6 CommentsTonight was brilliant. Tonight I came home from work, tuned out all of the outer distractions and got caught up on reading the many blogs I follow and have been missing recently.
Starting a new job always means putting in a few extra hours to learn the ropes – a few extraneous minutes of time to make the new bosses happy that they made the decision to bring you into the fold of their team. But with that additional effort comes the realization that other parts of your life suffer in the wake of your desire to be appreciated and recognized.
Lately, my writing has been staggered, at best, and my reading has resembled something close to non-existent. Life will return to normal when the summer staff come to ease to burden of my multi-tasking, but until then I will steal any moment I can to form thoughts into words and to catch up with others afflicted by the same writing bug that infects my mind.
I appreciate their sentiments, I get lost in their prose and I long for the precious minutes that thoughts form sentences that have meaning. I yearn for those cherished seconds that words escape from my mind without giving the ideas a second thought. Contemplation percolates, idioms spill and paragraphs are created.
(image credit: imedia.brooks.ac.uk)
To blog or not to blog is not the question. The only query that remains is how to create more hours in the day to do all of the things I need to do and save times for the things I truly love to do.
In the still of the night
7 CommentsTonight, in Mother Nature’s fury, we were graced by another storm exemplified by strong winds, rain, thunder and lightning. Living in a rural area means we are well accustomed to living without power during these tumultuous acts of divine intervention. The plethora of trees bend to the power that nature possesses and ultimately the lines of power created by man are no match for the Goddess of weather. We have been plunged into darkness and are submerged in the sounds of silence.
The world, as we know it, has come to a grinding halt and we are left bathed in the ethereal glow of candlelight. The earth has been baptised by the rain and the creatures of the night have true reign over their territory. Man cannot disturb what it cannot see.
I enjoy these moments. These nights that I am cloaked in darkness allow me the time to truly shut out the world. I have no cause to watch mindless television or surf the web in search of something to idly entertain my brain. I am left with my thoughts, transcribed in dim light by pen to paper, and a sense of relaxation that can only come from having no outward distractions to blame for my laziness. This is true escape.
My world, apart from two small candles, is black. The stillness of the night soothes my soul and the quiet envelops me like a blanket. I pull myself into it, feel the comfort of its solitude and soak in the warmth of its bliss. The creatures that sing their haunting refrains lull me into a trance. Pin-pricks of light dappled the sky as Fire Flies dance on the velvet backdrop of their own Black Light Theatre. The night is beautiful.
(image credit: globeattractions.com)
Sitting in my darkened tomb I know, as all good things do, this moment of bliss will come to an end. Power will be restored and the world will be bathed in harsh light and modern reality. Thankfully the world I live in, so far removed from city life, can remain this dark if I wish to keep the outside world extinguished. Even when the power is restored I can live in my alternate reality by leaving the lights off, enjoying the speckled light show outside my window and embracing the still of the night.
It’s not about how you see yourself dying, it’s about how you see yourself living
5 CommentsMost days I find Facebook too full of judgement, too saturated with over-sharing and too congested with an exaggerated amount of requests to play something called Farmville. But on rare occasions, things are shared that make me glad I have not deleted my account. The video below made me think a lot about how I am living my life and it made me cry. The tears that stained my cheeks were a mixture of sadness for the loss of such a beautiful life and tears of joy for being able to have a brief glimpse into the soul of such a beautiful child.
Please take the 20 minutes to watch the story of Zach Sobiech. It will make the subject line of this post stand out in the forefront of your mind and make me you rethink how you live your life each day.
Getting back my sense of self
8 CommentsFor the first time in a long time I walked through my house tonight and found I was smiling. I wasn’t reliving a memory or anticipating an upcoming event, I was just….happy.
I hadn’t realized how much of my happiness had been consumed by reality until the corners of my lips were turned upright for no particular reason. After all the tension I have experienced over the last couple of months, I was sure those muscles had atrophied and would require intense physiotherapy to get the full range of motion to return. The degeneration of joy was paralyzing.
But I am once again finding beauty in my surroundings because stress no longer abrades my senses. The scent of lilacs permeates my nose as soon as I step outside and the sounds of the creatures of the night soothe me with their harmonic tones. And after many nights of being unaware of the true depth of my melancholy, I am now able to appreciate their symphony and realize that my true bliss has returned.
My words flow more freely now because they are no longer trapped in a smoldering vat of fermenting unrest. My brain is at ease and my creativity flows in small streams until it culminates at the mouth of the river. Those ideas trickle along the banks of my mind. Each drop of inspiration is collected, it pools and eddies at the precipice until the words spill uncontrollably over the crest of rock and create a waterfall of language and expression. That waterfall is my release. That rapid flow of ideas is my heaven.
(image credit: commons.wikimedia.org)
I have slowly re-acquainted myself with the things that I hold dear. I have learned to let go of the stress and spend time each day making new memories and not just relying on recollections of my past to satiate my need for happy thoughts. I have regained my inner compass. I have reclaimed my sense of self.
Feeling up with some down time
49 CommentsYesterday I was able to leave work early and spend some much-needed time to myself. While preparing to leave my old job and begin the journey of starting a new job, I worked 18 days straight and had little time to just relax and breath.
I performed the perfunctory task of cleaning my house, I visited my mom and I went out for dinner with a friend. It was a great afternoon and once I was ensconced in the comfort of my living room, Mother Nature provided a great show of pyrotechnics last night for my amusement. I lit the candles, extinguished the lights and let the smooth harmonic blend of The Tenors wash over me as I watched the lightning dance outside my window.
(image credit: dottech.org)
I had a nice leisurely morning pulling myself from under the covers much later than usual and enjoyed a few cups of the “liquid of the Gods” known as coffee. My laptop welcomed me with open arms and we spent a few hours writing together.
It amazes me that a few simple hours spent away from the constraints of reality can make such a difference. Although I am truly a ‘people person’, I enjoy my solitude immensely. I am ready to tackle the next few days remembering the cherished moments I just spent with my puppy dog with no outside distractions until we can close the door on the world once more and take those fleeting minutes to just breathe.
A brave new world
12 CommentsToday I began a new journey. Today was my first day at a new job…..one that I ventured into after spending the better part of two decades at a place that was overwhelmingly familiar. The best part of today was walking into a place that, although not as familiar, I felt like I belonged. The buildings, the walls, the faces and the surroundings are new but still give me a sense of home.
The joy of working in hospitality is knowing that a strong personality and having the ability to fly by the seat of your pants are not only requirements, but assets that can assuage any sense of discomfort that may arise from being in a foreign place. And today, I flew. I jumped in with both feet and hit the ground running.
Perhaps the comfort level comes from being in a situation that is remarkably similar to my comfort zone, but on a much smaller scale. Or perhaps that peacefulness comes from being able to be myself and not sweat the small stuff. I adapt. It’s what I’m good at and a skill that allows me to blend in without seeming like I have no knowledge of my surroundings.
(image credit: http://www.shamrocklodge.com)
Tomorrow I can go back knowing a little more than I knew today – and knowledge is power. Tomorrow I take what I learned today and parlay it into a greater feeling of awareness and comprehension. Tomorrow the rest of me flies with the seat of my pants, and not just by the seat of my pants. Tomorrow I look back at yesterday and realize its success. Tomorrow, I look forward to many more tomorrows.
The fading image in my rear-view mirror
9 CommentsLike the perfect piece of baker’s chocolate, today will be bittersweet. I am comfortably ensconced in a chair in my office, shrouded by four very familiar walls that are situated on a property that I could maneuver my way around with my eyes closed. But today is my last day in this place.
A big part of my life has been spent exploring every facet of the 408 acres that make up this resort property. From my humble beginnings in 1986 I have cleaned every single one of the 158 rooms on numerous occasions, I have served hundreds of people in its dining room, I have greeted hundreds more at the front desk and I have encouraged thousands to vacation here. My car could drive itself from home to office after the numerous trips we have made together down this winding Muskoka road.
This home away from home has been the site of many experiences for me, some fantastic and some tragic. This job was not just a job. This place gave me the tools to grow, not only as an employee and a boss, but as a person. This place introduced me to many people I consider an extended part of my family. From staff to hotel guests, the connections I have made here will last a lifetime.
(image credit: http://www.clevelandshouse.com)
But the time has come to change the landscape I see on my drive to work. Although the splendor of the Muskoka beauty will still be seen through each of my car windows, the shadows that dance on the road before me will be different. The path that my tires follow will be not be naturally carved in the pavement leading me to the walls that contain so many memories. This new path will take time to feel as comfortable but I’m sure it will lead me to just as much happiness.
As the image of a lifetime fades in my rear-view mirror, the path ahead is waiting to welcome me with open arms and begin the journey of making new memories.
polysyllabic profundities 