Showing posts with label "The Country" "Canada". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "The Country" "Canada". Show all posts
November 27, 2009
Christmas Window Competition
The Driftwood is holding a downtown Christmas Light-up Competition and I'm not sure why but my co-worker and I really got into the idea for the Care Employment Centre on Salt Spring this year.
I scoured the local Thrift Shops for some Teddy Bears: Garfield, a monkey, a sad looking brown teddy were just a few of my finds. A friend of Suzanne's brought in a tiny old-fashioned red wagon. Suzanne brought in some big Christmas-type bags and holly from her mom's tree. One of our clients had the perfect Santa and she also gave us the creative ideas related to the little signs.
We pocketed stir sticks from Salt Spring Coffee Company to make the little wooden signs for our bears to hold up which say things like: "Hire Me" or "Better Carpenter than Mike Holmes", "Care aid at your service", "15+years experience as a server", "Computer Whiz Kid", "CEO, Presents Inc." (for Santa to hold up) and "Employers Needed. Spread the Joy."
Cotton batten is our snow. I'd purchased some white window shutters at the Fulford Flea Market a week earlier and they became the backdrop. I raided my own Christmas box for some stars and a few other things. About five trips to Mouat's Hardware later and we had the lights up and working.
We really got into this and voila, as you can see above, we have our cute little window display.
We can win $50 or $100 but even if we don't win, we had a ton of fun creating it and it might catch the attention of those people in town who have never really thought to drop in.
Tonight the judges will wander Ganges from window to window and decide who wins.
Wish us luck!
November 24, 2009
The Chi of Fortuitous Meetings
It has taken me a very, very long time but I no longer question or doubt my feelings or inner awareness when I meet someone who right away I know will have some impact on my life or will be a part of my life in some way.
It doesn't happen often. I can count on one hand the number of times it has happened in 48 years but in each instance, when I look back, I was completely aware that at the moment I met them or at the first meeting that they were "different", "special", a soul-mate in the non romantic sense of that word. There was always some tug, a space that demanded attention to give your inner awareness a chance to catch up with what was happening externally as your consciousness processed what was taking place in the physical world.
It's hard to explain in words the awareness that takes place if you have never been truly conscious of such a meeting but in almost every instance in the past when I have tried to negate the connection, I have been thwarted and it has risen to be front and centre in my existence in either a very positive way or a negative way or a little-of-both.
I have become aware in recent years that when I need something or someone to materialize, it or they inevitably does.
The other week I was at an event alone where about 100 people were in attendance. It was a concert. I was sitting there and a man walked into the room with his wife. I looked at him and I felt completely compelled to talk to him but as a single female, I'm not about to start chatting up some stranger, accompanied by his wife, at an entertainment event especially if it meant going out of my way to turn around.
To be clear, I'm not talking about a physical attraction, not that he wasn't physically attractive, but the compulsion was so strong that it was as if an invisible hand was pushing me towards him. This is not usually, never has been for me, the result of a one-way energy field.
The proof? Without any focused effort on my part, at intermission, he began talking to me. In a very short time we exchanged e-mails and today met up. He's from L.A. He lives here six months of the year. He treated me to a coffee and we had a very interesting exchange related to possibilities for writing work and I have no doubt that at some point in the future, I will work with him or gain work through him.
The trick is to learn when to surrender to the connection and be open to its possibilities instead of doubting it.
If you've never had this happen, you probably wonder what I'm talking about. Perhaps surrender is the topic of this blog post actually. Today, during meditation with my lady, the topic focused on surrendering, knowing when to surrender and to look, throughout your day at your choice of response.
There is always in every situation the highest possible response and a low-level response that will only add flames to the fire so to speak.
Throughout the week, when you're faced with challenging circumstances, people who push your buttons, or you feel unconsciously compelled to react without foresight, you could take a breath, get conscious, and
remind yourself that there is a choice.
There is the highest possible response which is a detour from your usual response and of course there is the lowest common denominator response. It's a challenge we could all benefit from I think. And some people, perhaps those who are our biggest test, will inevitably always force us into the reactive behaviour until we finally learn to surrender, even if it takes more than one lifetime to get it!
Labels:
"Salt Spring",
"The Country" "Canada",
BC,
intuition,
surrendering
April 29, 2009
When Living Itself
If the beloved is everywhere,the lover is the veil,
but when living itself becomes
the Friend, lovers disappear.
-it was time for a Rumi poem, again.
Labels:
"The Country" "Canada",
Rumi,
Salt Spring
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