Just Letting My Mind Wander.........

After a few days on holidays I am finally ino a bit of a groove.  I am a creature of habit so, it always takes me a bit before I feel completely at ease in a new environment.  This morning was the first time that I felt I was into a good flow as I walked around the beautiful driving range at the PGA Centre for Golf Learning & Performance in Port St. Lucie.  After 15 minutes I was well past the training centre and within my thoughts as I absorbed the smell of grass and felt the sun beating down on me. 

It is during times like these when minutes turn quickly into an hour, and I feel like I am connected with the universe in some special way.  Difficult to describe, it is the same experience people feel when they have finally established their spiritual place in their world.  It is what most of us seek for a very long time, but sometimes make it more complicated than it has to be.  Often, it is right in front of us, and it is waiting for us to leap towards and take advantage of it. 

For me, it is a long walk in the woods or a sit down with paper, pens, and stamps.  For my daughter, it is a long run in solitude where she is able to think deeply and with abandon.  For my son and my husband, it is that long walk along the golf course where nature and people meet with cameradie, peace and calm.  For a close friend of mine, it happens within the sanctuary of her church where she can kneel, pray and find comfort in the presence of her God.  For yet another, it occurs throughout her morning yoga and meditation practice.  It is spirituality; the natural force that many of us fight in order to survive the busyness of the day and the chaos of our society as it is today.  We worry about slowing down as it may break our pattern of getting things done.  We have conditioned ourselves to keep the momentum going so that not a moment is lost.  As a result, we miss the moments between our breath that allow our spirituality to emerge and  connect us in a different way than we are used to. 

Sometimes, we need to slow in order to get the things done that really matter.  The moments that we miss are the ones that really count; they are the ones that connect us to ourselves and to each other.  Think about the last time you let your mind wander to wherever it wanted to go........think about where it went and how it felt.  Amazing, right?!?!

Customer Service in the Rainy South

Being here in Port St. Lucie, Florida for the last 4 days has been very eventful as we have had rain every day since we arrived.  This has moved us directly into full shopping mode which my daughter and I have decided to welcome with great enthusiasm.  The sun should be shining by tomorrow offering us 6 days of poolside relaxation and book reading time. 

During our shopping spree we stopped at the Pulix grocery store and experienced customer service extroidinaire!!  Where I come from, gone are the days when an extra clerk packs your bags and then pushes your cart to your car and unloads them into your trunk.  When my husband offered her a tip, she stepped back and graciously thanked him while indicating that she was not allowed to accept his gratuity.  I felt like I was moving through a dream where my standards of customer service were not only being met but, were being exceded by leaps and bounds.  I had already been blown away by the cashier's smile and conversation as she asked how we were doing, and where we were from.  She was courteous, energetic and even provided us with a cloth bag for our wine without charging us for it.  When we walked out of the store she called out to "have a great day", and gave us a wave and a smile. 

Although, I love Canada as my home, I have to say that the people of Florida have proven that customer service is alive and extremely well.  xoxo

I love you because.....

One of the young men, who work at the Starbucks where my daughter works and that I frequent, shared this photo of the gift his wife gave him for Valentines. It is the epitome of a well thought out gesture, and it is obvious that it took much time and energy. It required tapping into her creative mind and, by seeing the results, I am guessing she enjoyed every minute of the process.

This is what some are missing by flying around in cars stopping at shop after shop in search of the ‘perfect’ gift and card. We hope that we will find the one that will send the message that is the ‘right’ fit for our loved one. How ironic is it that it is as simple as saying or writing down what we want to say? Combined with a little ingenuity and your own personal touch, you end up expressing exactly what you want your honey to know......just how much you love them.

Wax Paper Petal Pressing 101

Rose Petals Transformed into 'LOVE'

'Faith and Peace Can Only Come From Love'

I sit here in the stillness of my house, with the sun shining through the large picture window. The view seems bare since the old poplar was removed after the small ice storm we had a few weeks ago. It was inevitable as we watched the weight of the frozen branches pull the tree down to the ground like the wire on a bow. It arched over the inuksuk as if protecting it from harm’s way.

The arborist asked me if I would disassemble the ‘stone structure’ before he began his work, and I told him “no, I trust it to maintain its strength through the process; it will not fall”. He looked at me like I had two heads, and started the chain saw. I watched from the window, and he looked up at me once before directing his partner to pull the rope that was attached to the trunk more to the left.  I felt a shift as something about him changed.  I'm not sure if he fully understood my connection with the inuksuk, but he suddenly sensed that maintaining the inuksuk’s existence was very important. He knew that I had faith in his ability to protect its space in my garden, and that I would value his efforts of preserving it.  

It is that silent faith that is most effective within our lives and the people in it. Sometimes, we do not need words or conversation; just calm and universal trust that everything will be alright. From that comes what is meant to be. We give up the need for control and allow things to flow. It can seem good or bad, but in the end, it all works out and with that comes freedom.  The tree moved behind the inuksuk in a slow steady swipe and gently landed on the ground.  The woodsman immediately looked up at me with a large grin and gave me a thumbs up.  I smiled back and mouthed "thank you".  I knew the inuksuk would remain standing because it is where it is meant to be.  If it had fallen, I would have been at peace with that too. 



On this Valentine’s Day, I wonder how much control we allow into our lives when we are seeking love and our perception of it. Maybe we just need to have a little faith in the natural progression of it and how it will play out. I love my inuksuk and the peace that it provides me, but I knew that its fate was in the hands of the arborist’s care and the trust that I had in him. And from that, my new mantra came to me; ‘ faith and peace can only come from love’.

Happy Valentine’s lovelies xoxoxoxo

The Test of Resilience

After visiting a medical clinic today, I sat in my car and smiled at what had just happened to me. I was just diagnosed with shingles on the exact day that my column Having Faith in Yourself will Provide You With Resilience. Does anyone else see the irony in that?!?! At first I was utterly shocked that the painful rash I was dealing with was something that I perceive as extremely horrifying. I went into full victim mode, and my mind was filled with the “how can this be happening to me?” and “I don’t deserve this”. I spent the next 20 minutes waiting for a prescription and wandering around the drug store in a daze. I couldn’t think straight and I was totalling focused on the burning sensation I was feeling where the rash had developed....right under my bra strap!! When I got to the car, I sat behind the wheel and gulped down the first dose of medication and took a deep breath.

I didn’t turn on the engine right away, and I looked around the parking lot. It was a Saturday morning, and there were alot of people walking around the mall. I wondered how many of them had been given bad news within the last 24 hours. I thought of all the different things they could have been told, and I quickly realized that the news I received would not have been the worst thing communicated to anyone today. Quick reality check; I have a choice on how I can view this and how I am going to manage this situation, and I can do it as a pessimist and be miserable, or I can move through it with optimism and grace. So, with that train of thought, I leave you with my most recent Whig Standard column, the ‘Talk of Life’..... xoxo